Just because you got used to it doesn’t mean it’s normal.
Multinationals like Coca-Cola and Pepsi buy water from public water systems at a ridiculous price, wrap the filtered water in plastic, sell it, and then let the municipalities manage the empty bottles.
When you buy their containers, you therefore pay three times. For the bottle, for the financing of water distribution networks and for the treatment of residual materials.
It’s not a product, it’s waste. It’s not an economic activity, it’s siphoning off a public good.
Quebec charges them $0.0000035 per litre. This rate has not changed since 2011. In Italy, the price is 1000 times higher. And 4000 times more in Denmark.
However, these companies would have the means to do a little more. For example, Pepsi reported net revenues of US$7.6 billion in 2021…
That’s not all. To assess the volume of water withdrawn, Quebec relies on estimates made by companies. In their old infrastructures, an acquired right allows them to do so without a meter. The margin of error can be up to 25%.
And what’s more, it’s done in secret. In May, bottlers won in Quebec Court the right to hide their water use from the public. A resource which, I remind you, is supposed to belong to everyone.
How can we tolerate this farce for so long?
In 2018, the Liberals, the PQ and the Solidarity promised to increase royalties. Only François Legault opposed it. He feared that the bottlers would pass on the bill to the customers.
In June, a few days before the end of his mandate, the Minister of the Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change, Benoit Charette, tabled a modest bill. Finally, he undertook to increase the pricing, without however advancing on a figure – it would have been specified in a later regulation.
During the election campaign, the CAQ promised that this fee would be increased and that it would finance a new Blue Fund. The envelope would be used in particular to clean the banks, fight against invasive species, protect watersheds and help residents upgrade their septic tanks.
Thursday, Mr. Legault returned to the charge. He reiterated his commitment to raise tariffs. And, new, transparency could be required, according to what Mr. Charette told environmentalists in private.
In Quebec, I am told that the bill will not be a copy and paste of the version tabled in June. The reflection is open to know how to improve it.
Transparency would be welcome. And we should act more forcefully against plastic water bottles.
In 2016, the former mayor of Montreal Denis Coderre had considered doing so, but a lobbying offensive had made him back down.
With his extended deposit project in 2020, Mr. Charette had resisted the pressure groups. He will have a great opportunity to do it again.
The water charge does not only affect bottlers. It targets all industries that use more than 75,000 liters per day.
The price varies according to the sectors. For paper mills, mining, aluminum smelters and food: $2.50 per million litres. For concrete, fertilizer, chemicals and bottling: $70 per million litres.
More than 810 billion liters – or 232,000 Olympic swimming pools – are withdrawn on average each year under this regulation. In exchange, the state receives barely 3 million dollars.
We are a people of water givers. Nothing to be proud of.
In its election advertisements, the CAQ struck national chords with its promise of a Blue Fund, with images of lakes and rivers.
Improving water pricing would be a minimum for reclaiming this public good. The protection and revitalization of ecosystems would also be necessary. The fact remains that the Blue Fund alone will not be enough. Because at the same time, the State endorses the destruction of wetlands and sometimes destroys them itself. Since 2017, less than 3% of financial compensation paid by promoters has been used to restore wetlands or create new ones.
At COP15, Mr. Legault recalled that fresh water covers 10% of our territory. Finally, protecting her would be a minimum. But another thing could also be done.
In theory, Quebecers have a “right to use” water. But only if you can get there. However, access is often privatized. In other words, you can swim, but you can’t go to swim.
To their credit, municipalities may want to control access to water to avoid contamination and other nuisances. But their calculation is sometimes less noble. For them, developing shoreline access is an expense, while selling it to a property developer is an income.
If the CAQ government wants to make Quebec blue and proud, here is one last project that might interest it.
His water election images were majestic. It would be nice to be able to watch them somewhere other than on a screen.