Letter Writing Talking Points
Fantastic! You want to write a letter to support responsible water policy (Thank You!), but you're not sure where to start. We’ve got you covered with some talking points below:
- Water is a public trust and thus its protection is the responsibility of each of us. The provincial government makes the decisions about granting Permits to Take Water. We ask the province to issue no new Permits to Take Water to commercial water bottlers.
​
- Removing water from a watershed is a threat to drinking water and the watershed as a whole.
- Water worldwide and in Canada is at risk from overuse, pollution and over extraction.
- The Ontario government needs to adhere to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People signed by Canada in 2010. They have a duty to consult on decisions including Permits to Take Water. The current regulations download this responsibility to the applicant which does not uphold that duty.
- BlueTriton (formerly Nestlé) is seeking a permit to take 1.6 million of litres of water per day from a well near the Grand River on the edge of Elora in Centre Wellington.
- The urban area is mandated to double in population by 2041.
- Centre Wellington’s Water Supply Master Plan concluded that the municipal water supply must increase by at least 4 wells to deal with the growth. The best place to site those wells is west of Elora where the Nestle Middlebrook well is located.
- The Tier 3 Water Budget study, funded by the MECP, has concluded that this area is at “significant risk” for water quantity.
- Additional water taking for commercial water bottling is a serious and avoidable risk for the future of this community. Decisions made about this Permit to Take Water will set a precedent for the rest of the province.
- Water ought to be a public trust for the health of the watershed, communities, farms, and the fragile ecosystems dependent on that water.
- The plastic waste generated by water bottling fills our landfills and pollutes our waterways. It uses over 2 litres of water to produce a bottle.
​
- Single use plastic is filling up landfill sites and is also a threat to our waterways, the oceans and its creatures.
- Water bottling companies in Ontario pump water for a small permitting fee of $503.71, ship that water to bottling plants, use more water to produce plastic bottles, bottle the water and then ship it across the country and, through distributors, across the world.
- The environmental footprint – from production of plastic using oil to waste from single use plastic as well as the trucking and transporting pre and post bottling – is huge.
- Our groundwater supply is finite. We need to be responsible stewards of that precious water. Giving a Permit to Take Water to a commercial water bottling company in order for that company to sell the water back to us is irresponsible and short sighted.
- Ask the Minister to make a responsible decision that saves our environment and conserves the water.
​
Please write a letter to the Minister so that a decision about the Permit to Take Water respects the citizens of Ontario, the environment, and the conservation and protection of water. Time is running out!
​
For Minister Piccini's contact information, click here.
​