(Quebec) The Legault government has tabled its bill to increase water royalties paid by companies and create a Blue Fund, and wants to ban the sale of single-use water bottles that are filled at the aqueduct .
“What is targeted, and this is major as far as I am concerned, we have an enormous amount — it is calculated in hundreds of millions — of small bottles of water which are sold in Quebec and which contain only water from the networks of aqueduct. For me, it’s nonsense, “said Environment Minister Benoit Charette at a press conference on Thursday.
The piece of legislation will give him the power, with “new regulatory powers”, to “prohibit or limit certain uses of water from an aqueduct system”. The Minister will also have the power to prohibit the sale and distribution “of products in the containers or packaging that he determines, in particular in single-fill containers”, specifies the bill tabled in the morning.
“There are a lot of companies that just bottle tap water, from the water system. […] I don’t know all their names, but there are multinationals that have made it one of their specialties,” he added.
This ban is not immediate. The Minister must first table a draft regulation “within the next year” to “prohibit or limit it in a significant way”. “Naturally, the reason we’re not filing it [immediately] is that a regulatory impact analysis has to be completed by then. From the moment it is prohibited, we will ensure that the ban comes into force as soon as possible, “he explained.
The Minister clarified that nearly 2 billion small plastic water bottles are sold in Quebec each year. “It’s huge,” he blurted out. Not all of these 2 billion water bottles will be banned, as some are filled with spring water. “From the next few months, with the extended deposit, all bottles will be returned. But if we can reduce the number of bottles put on the market at the source, we make an additional gain,” he explained.
This bill will also allow Mr. Charrette to significantly increase the paltry charges imposed on industries for using water.
Less than $3 million was paid last year by corporations to use this public good. The Legault government will multiply these royalties by 10, and will collect 30 million per year from next year. This amount will then be increased by 3% each year.
La Presse reported in the morning that Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon has ensured that companies that consume a lot of water, such as paper mills, will receive a helping hand to avoid suffering too much from this tax. “There are mitigation measures because there are people who are more impacted than others,” he said in an exchange with La Presse.
“I wouldn’t think of jeopardizing the mining industry and the water industry. Me and my colleague Maité [Blanchette Vézina, Minister of Natural Resources and Forests], we worked with Benoit Charrette,” said Mr. Fitzgibbon.
The cost paid by Ontario businesses — currently seven times higher than in Quebec — was taken into consideration. With the sums collected with this higher fee, Quebec will be able to “support” “technology investments” to reduce water waste.
The royalty money will be directed to the Blue Fund, created with the bill.
