Representatives of Ontario's bottled water industry say their business is no threat to the health of the province's groundwater supply, and that they are being unfairly singled out by critics of the province's commercial water use policy.

The Canadian Water Bottlers Association says Ministry of Environment statistics show the industry takes less than two-tenths of one per cent of all the water that is extracted from lakes, rivers and underground streams across the province.

"The amount of water that we're using as an industry is equal to the amount 10 golf courses use in a year," said Elizabeth Griswold, head of the Canadian Bottled Water Association.

Griswold argued that Ontario's Liberals drew on incomplete information when they made an election promise to add fees for commercial users of water.

"They didn't understand the bottled water industry," she said. "They were looking at the perception that bottled water was drinking the aquifers. Now they have the actual data.

"I believe the reality and perception are complete extremes."

Griswold said the province should now understand that "bottled water is not a threat to Ontario groundwater resources." 

Ottawa cool to calls for a national policy

But the water bottlers agree with environmentalists on one point: Ottawa should act to develop a national policy designed to protect groundwater supplies.

"The bottled water industry 12 years ago wrote to the federal government asking them to develop a groundwater protection act," says Griswold.

The calls appear to be getting a cool reaction from the federal government, which insists water is a provincial responsibility.

A spokesperson for federal Environment Minister Rona Ambrose said Ottawa's main focus is water pollution, with recent funding announcements to stop the flow of sewage into Halifax harbour and talks with Victoria about a new sewage treatment system. 

Earlier this week, the Ontario government came under pressure for breaking an election promise to charge fees for commercial and industrial water users.

On Wednesday, Environment Minister Laurel Broten told the legislature the fees would be introduced but refused to say when.

Environmentalists want industry to pay

Government statistics show that hydro plants and big industry such as automakers and steel plants use the bulk of Ontario's water.

Environmentalists say more provinces should be charging fees for water that farmers, water bottlers, and industry now get for free. Water fees now exist in seven provinces and territories.

But there are complaints that even when fees are charged, they are ridiculously low. 

"The highest we found was $12.53 per million litres of water," says Randy Christenson of the Sierra Legal Defence Fund. "To put that in context: a million litres of water is about a five-year supply for an individual."

Christensen argues that in provinces such as Nova Scotia, power companies and industry pay the same bargain basement rates for water.

"Water bottlers, which take 1.7 million litres of water a day, pay only $1,000 a year.

"I think we've been living in a dream world for a lot of years."

Christensen says Ontario's Clean Water Act is a step in the right direction, but indicative of a piecemeal approach to water policy across Canada.

"I think we would welcome any sort of standard source protection across the country," he said, noting that the focus for the moment seems to be on Ontario. 

"Across the board, the provinces are failing miserably in protecting drinking water," he added. "The provinces haven't gained an adequate control on the number of water uses that exist and the new ones coming along."

Canadians huge consumers of water

Conservation officials agree that Canadians take their water for granted. 

Groundwater contamination is a constant threat and protecting the water source, which is finite, will cost money. They point to the town of Walkerton, Ont., where seven people died six years ago from drinking water contaminated by E. coli bacteria.

"One suggestion," said Don Smith, an Ontario municipal water official, "was a comparison to the forestry industry having stumpage fees, and that money going to protect the forestry resource. A similar thing is not unthinkable with respect to water."

But the idea of water "stumpage" fees continues to prove highly political with big business, water bottlers, golf courses and farmers all lobbying against the idea.

Smith says he would like to see minimum national standards to protect drinking water.

Overall, Canada ranks 28th out of 29 OECD countries in per capita water consumption. British Columbia charges for surface water, while Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut charge fees for ground water.

There are no water fees in six provinces, including Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.