U of T and Ryerson students sent a “message in a bottle” to 107 MPPs last Thursday, stuffing empty water bottles with letters that ask for an end to government spending on bottled water. The campaign supports the Bottled Water Spending Act, a private member’s bill introduced by Danforth MPP Peter Tabuns, a New Democrat and former executive director of Greenpeace. The bill would bar government bodies from spending on water in facilities where clean public water is readily accessible.
“Water is an essential public resource,” said Leanne Rasmussen, a student exec on U of T’s Public Water Initiative, who worked with Ryerson’s Green Action Group and the Polaris Institute, an Ottawa-based think tank, to launch the “Message in a Bottle” campaign. “Drinking bottled water undermines the public services that we have for it. It brings it into private hands and makes it for profit.”
“When the government isn’t drinking our public water, it looks pretty bad,” she added.
“It’s part of a broader movement and it’s incredibly important,” said Richard Girard, the Polaris Institute’s research coordinator. “The bill is an excellent precedent.” He adds that the bill will be the first provincial action in Canada against bottled water, noting that over 70 municipalities across Canada have already taken action against spending on commercially produced water.
“Given the data that has been collected in 2009 about the amount of money spent on bottled water, this is [an] excellent action for the province to be taking,” Girard said. According to a study conducted by the Polaris Institute, the government has spent over $15 million purchasing private water in the last five years.
The bill does not restrict individuals from buying bottled water, or government purchases in circumstances where access to water fountains is difficult, such as concerts or sporting events.
