Victory in BC
- Details
- Published on Saturday, 18 July 2015 11:45
- Written by editor
Dear A,
Great news! After 225,000 of us spoke out against the mismanagement of the precious water we all rely on, BC will revisit water rates for industrial users, including bottling companies like Nestle! This is a major milestone towards protecting the precious shared water so vital to the ecology, economy and quality of life in BC.
Watch this video of us delivering our message straight to the BC Government!
On top of being our biggest Canadian petition ever, this campaign has kick-started a national conversation. From news anchors to social media, it seems like everyone’s been talking about water.
We wanted to take a few minutes here to answer the questions we’ve been hearing most often about this campaign.
Q. Why is this victory important?
This commitment, which we secured together with our allies at WaterWealth and others who have been tirelessly fighting for better water legislation, is one step towards protecting freshwater for the public benefit.
Asking for a review of water rates can seems like a small victory when there’s so much big work to be done -- for instance, we need to stop companies like Nestle from profiting from our groundwater altogether. But it’s an incredibly crucial step. Right now, there’s a lot we don’t know about water in BC. We need the resources to do that, which is why we’ve been calling for higher water rates.
Only when we know more about our shared water reserves can we stop irresponsible industrial use for private profit.
Q. Will raising the rates risk commodification of water under NAFTA?
In short, no it won’t -- which is good news. Water is not a commodity and should never be for sale.
Right now companies like Nestle get privileged access to this water. Not only can they take unlimited amounts of groundwater for free, the government doesn’t even charge administrative fees that can actually support real stewardship of freshwater resources. Our petition used the word "price" because that's how the BC government talks about water rental rates, and that’s the first piece of the change we are fighting for.
It’s misleading to suggest that raising the water rates in BC would have any impact on how NAFTA is applied. Right now, provinces across Canada charge water rates up to $140 per million litres of water accessed, compared to just $2.25 in BC. BC is the very last province in the country to start regulating groundwater, and we are calling on the BC government to step it up. And we cannot let them off the hook.
"Raising water volume rents under the new legislation is timely, and will not affect the status of groundwater under NAFTA.” - Deborah Curran, University of Victoria Faculty of Law Professor.
Q. What’s next for this campaign?
First and foremost, we need to hold the BC government to its word -- we need to make sure that water rates are reviewed quickly, and that they’re high enough to support really strong water stewardship. On Wednesday, we delivered a 40-lb stack of petition signatures to Minister Polak’s office to reminder her that we won’t be backing off until she follows through on her commitment.
Next, we’ll keep working to make sure precious fresh water reserves are managed responsibly, and not for the benefit of private interests. That’s why we’re fighting to stop Nestle’s bottled water operations in California and to prevent new bottling operations in Oregon. Here in BC, we’ll keep fighting to limit groundwater licenses altogether for bottling companies like Nestle and other corporate freeloaders too.
Thank you to all 225,000 of you who joined with us - people power works!
Angus, Liz, Emma and Rosa, your Canadian SumOfUs team
P.S. Have you watched our awesome video yet? Check it out!
P.P.S. If you have ideas for how to protect water from private profiteering, you can start your own campaign onr0