(Quebec) Do you want to know how many liters of water are taken in Quebec by companies to be resold in bottles? It’s secret.
Posted at 6:19 a.m.
Environmental organizations are addressing the court to lift the opaque veil over the millions of liters of water collected in particular by Coca Cola, Pepsi, Naya, Eska, etc.
The Canadian Press has learned that the case will be heard on 1er March.
This confidential information could revive the debate on the royalties affected by the State, considered too low by the opposition.
The Commission d’accès à l’information had previously refused to divulge this information, in the name of commercial secrecy.
However, the organizations Eau Secours and the Quebec Center for Environmental Law (CQDE) are contesting the decision before the Court of Quebec.
Transparency
“When the population makes a request for access to information to obtain the quantities of water abstracted by the large abstractors, access is refused to them, but for us, however, it is common sense, it is that’s why we are in court,” summed up lawyer Marc Bishai, partner of the CQDE.
The plaintiffs believe that the Water Act takes precedence, with its principles of participation and transparency.
Consequently, the organizations consider that citizens have the right to know the use made of this resource, a “vital, exhaustible and vulnerable” resource, as the preamble to the law puts it.
Precise data is needed before a debate can be launched on the viability of withdrawals or the pricing of these volumes of water.
“We will certainly be able to have debates on this question,” he acknowledged.
“But upstream, even before we can discuss it, we don’t even know how much water each company takes. Once we have this information, we can have many intelligent discussions about impacts on water, possible conflicts of use, appropriate royalties, and so on. »
Pricing
Last week, the Liberal Party and the Parti Québécois demanded an upward revision of the tariff for the use of water, unchanged since 2010.
The Coalition avenir Québec had undertaken to review the pricing, but Minister Benoit Charette refused to initiate this process as part of the study of Bill 102 currently underway.
The current grid is recognized as notoriously lower even than Ontario.
In 2018, it was reported that 2 billion liters of bottled water in Quebec had generated less than $150,000 in revenue for the Quebec Treasury. The same year, Ontario had received 23 million for the water withdrawn, noted Liberal MP Isabelle Melançon.
The royalty rate is $2.50 per million liters of water, but $70 per million liters of water for, for example, bottled water, the manufacture of beverages, certain mineral products and chemicals, pesticides, or the extraction of oil and gas.
In comparison, Italy requires $2,000 per million liters and Denmark, $10,000 per million liters, denounced Isabelle Melançon.
The Quebec Regulation respecting the dues payable for the use of water applies to all industries that withdraw or use 75,000 liters of water or more per day.