Re Tom Fletcher’s “Nestle protest doesn’t hold water” (Abbotsford News, 21 July 2015).
Mr Fletcher pulls no punches, calling the SumOfUs/WaterWealth petition nonsense in the opening paragraph of his piece. Fortunately none of Fletcher’s punches land, being aimed at places the petition never stood.
As a representative of WaterWealth I sincerely apologize to Mr Fletcher if he took the words “suck BC dry” literally and mistook the opening comment for the whole conversation. We had not anticipated that, and feedback we have received indicates that the public went well beyond that opening comment to understand the broader issues that the petition was about–primary among them being to ensure that the Water Sustainability Act is sufficiently funded to be fully implemented.
The review of rental rates under the Act, that the petition sought and that the province promised even before the petition was delivered, is but one more step in the on-going work to ensure that the public’s voice is heard in development of strong regulations for the Water Sustainability Act, the first major update of BC water law in over a century.
Perhaps Mr Fletcher overlooked that the petition text was “Charge a fair price for Canada’s groundwater! Commit now to review the water rates!” Those rates, ranging from $0.02 to $2.25, apply to some 80 categories of water use. None of those 80 categories of use can be satisfied with either tap water or a jug from the fridge.
Ian Stephen, Campaign Director
WaterWealth Project
