Community & Labour Action

Activists ponder the true cost of government buying bottled water: Metro Halifax

JON TATTRIE
April 30, 2009

The federal government spends millions of dollars on bottled water, wasted money better spent ensuring all Canadians have access to free, clean water, activists said yesterday.

“Since April 2006, the government of Canada has spent upwards of $7.2 million of public money to purchase bottled water,” said Danny Cavanagh, president of CUPE Nova Scotia, quoting new Polaris Institute findings. “Water fountains, accessible taps, water-treatment plants —just think what the government of Canada could do if it properly invested $7.2 million.”

The activists were speaking as the Canadian Bottled Water Association held its annual trade convention in Halifax.

Canada’s public water infrastructure is in bad shape and needs investment, Cavanagh added, raising concerns about the environmental and health impacts of bottled water.

Geri LeBlanc, director for aboriginal members for the Public Service Alliance of Canada, called for the government to stop buying water in places with clean water on tap and to invest that money in communities where the water is undrinkable.

“In Canada, many First Nations have water systems that are comparable to developing countries,” she said. “Here in Dartmouth, we don’t have to go far to find a First Nations community that has water pollution.”

Pictou Landing First Nation in Boat Harbour, which has been inundated with mill waste water since the 1960s, was one example she gave. Pictou Landing’s toxic harbour goes into the community’s well water, LeBlanc said.

“How much better would the health of those aboriginal communities be if the government had spent that amount upgrading a water-treatment plant on a First Nations community?” she questioned.