City of Powell River Council has altered its position on the prospect of bottling of water in the city, defeating a motion it previously made and replacing it with a more restrictive motion.
At the June 18 city council meeting, councillors deliberated for nearly an hour on the merits of water bottling, in light of more than 200 pieces of correspondence received by the city opposing it.
At the June 4 council meeting, councillors considered a staff report that provided three options for bottling of water. The issue originally came to council after a presentation from Bruce Gibbons of the Merville Water Guardians on Vancouver Island, who wanted council to ban bottling of groundwater in the city.
At the June 4 meeting, council passed the following resolution: that staff be directed to prepare an amendment bylaw to City of Powell River Zoning Bylaw 2100, 2006 that permits water bottling, except for water from groundwater sources, with a complementary amendment bylaw to City of Powell River Business Licence Bylaw 2226, 2010 to require that a water bottling business demonstrate that the source water is not groundwater.
Councillor CaroleAnn Leishman opposed the motion and councillor Rob Southcott abstained from the vote.
At the June 11 council meeting, Southcott came back to council with a motion to reconsider the motion that was adopted at the June 4 meeting.
Mayor Dave Formosa said he thought council wanted to reconsider and put the matter up for a vote. Council voted unanimously for reconsideration. That put the motion council passed at its June 4 meeting back on the floor.
Leishman said the motion council had passed permits water bottling, except from groundwater sources and amends the city’s business licence bylaw to permit water bottling businesses in Powell River to bottle water that is not groundwater. She said staff indicated in its report that it would have no practical way of assuring the water bottled actually originated from non-groundwater sources.
“That’s a huge red flag for me,” said Leishman. “City staff are warning that if we go down this road by allowing water bottling, then we have to monitor that the water is not coming from a groundwater source. Staff has no way to monitor that.”
Leishman said the first option staff introduced, that staff be directed to prepare an amendment bylaw to City of Powell River Zoning Bylaw 2100, 2006 that in all zones prohibits the bottling of water and other beverages where the source of the water is other than the municipal water supply supplied directly to the property on which the bottling is taking place, was a better option.
“It does state we can use the municipal water supply, so businesses like Aaron Services are not at risk,” said Leishman. “People also purchase water in large bottles from Quality Foods and Save-On-Foods and that is not at risk with option one.
She said if council passed the option it was reconsidering, the city may as well put out a sign that says: Welcome to Powell River, the water bottling capital of Canada.
“We should say no to any surface or groundwater bottling so we don’t end up with Nestle and all of the biggest corporations on our doorsteps and we end up with the most unsustainable type of industry.”
Councillor George Doubt said when he looked at the options presented at the June 4 meeting, staff came back with a range of choices to protect groundwater. He voted for the option that prohibited the bottling of groundwater and regulated the bottle of water from sources other than groundwater.
“I voted in favour of that, in preference to item number one, because of the potential of good jobs in the community,” said Doubt. “The mayor has said there is the possibility of good jobs that might someday come to Powell River. It would leave open the possibility that someone could bring water bottling to Powell River of surface water that they already have water licences for that they are already bottling in other places.
“That would leave the economic opportunity to have jobs in Powell River. I am conscious of the need for industrial tax collection and for jobs in the community,” said Doubt. “Since then, I’ve received a lot of emails from people that say they don’t care about jobs. Some of the letters say we should include surface water in the prohibition.”
Doubt said it was reasonable to reconsider his position when hearing from the voting public and they say they would like the elected officials to do something different.
Palm said he did not want to go down in history as being known as the job killer in Powell River.
“That’s not why I was elected,” he said. “I’m going to work for all of the people in Powell River, not just for the people that voice their opinions on this single issue.”
Palm said he had visited the mayor earlier in the day and was on a teleconference with a representative who is strongly considering coming to Powell River to create jobs in water bottling. Palm said there would be 25 to 30 jobs. The lowest paying was $23 an hour, going up to $42 an hour, according to Palm.
Formosa said nobody has come forward as of yet to open a packaging facility in Powell River. He said there is a group that is very interested in establishing an operation that would bottle water, and they’ve done a business plan which provides for 25 to 30 employees.
When council reconsidered the option endorsed by council on June 4, council voted against the option, with Formosa and Palm in favour.
Leishman then proposed that council adopt the first option, which was that staff be directed to prepare an amendment bylaw to the city zoning bylaw that in all zones prohibits bottling of water and other beverages where the source of the water is other than the municipal water supply supplied directly to the property on which the bottling is taking place.
Council voted in favour of the motion, with Formosa and Palm opposed, to applause from spectators in the council chambers gallery.
Bottling of water, other than properly licensed municipal water, will not proceed in the city. Staff will now prepare an amendment bylaw to that effect.
