January 18, 2017 (Toronto) – Ontario bottled water permits account for only 0.001% (one-thousandth of one percent) of the 377 trillion litres of total annual permitted water withdrawal amounts covered by active Ontario Permits to Take Water.[1] As an industry, we work diligently to manage water resources in an environmentally responsible way. The charges for water use in Ontario are set by government and are currently applied on a small subset of Ontario industrial and commercial water users.[2] Ontario’s permitted withdrawals for bottled water remain a small fraction of the total, while larger water users pay no fees for the water they take, for example: construction, manufacturing industries, sod operations, mining, pulp and paper, and tobacco growers. CBA members look forward to working with government to safeguard groundwater in a manner consistent across industries, and proportionate to amount taken and environmental impact.
[1] Based on currently active permits listed in Ontario Ministry of Environment Excel database file at https://files.ontario.ca/moe_mapping/downloads/2Water/PermitToTakeWater [accessed 2016/08/23]
[2] Government of Ontario, Water taking report and charges https://www.ontario.ca/page/water-taking-report-and-charges