To the Editor,
Re: Cost of tap water paid by taxpayers, Letters, Aug. 2.
The representative for Nestle Waters Canada, John B. Challinor II, appears to be rather confused about the issues surrounding the possible banning of bottled water from Regional District of Nanaimo properties.
This is not a health but a cost issue.
There is no reason for advocates for banning bottled water to be “against the Canadian beverage industry” other than being against the largely uneccesary environmental cost it creates.
This is not a vendetta, but a sensible battle against a product that is already available at much lower cost to all Canadians.
He is correct when he states that tap water is not free but is paid for by taxpayers, who also pay for the disposal of all those empty bottles.
What he fails to clarify is that regardless of whether you pay the outrageous prices for bottled water – including its distribution, manufacturing and disposal of the waste bottles – you are doing so on top of what you have already paid for municipal water. Does this make any economic sense?
Liz Fox
Lantzville
