[Mr.HappySilp]

B.C. selling out taxpayers | Vancouver 24 hrs (http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/2015/02/22/bc-selling-out-taxpayers)



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“The marketers can compete with free; it just has to be better. Look at bottled water if you don't believe me.” - psychologist Jonathan Potter

Have you ever paid $2.25 for a bottle of water? Of course - you can pay a lot more if you go to a Vancouver Canucks game, a concert, movie theatre or restaurant.

So what if you could pay $2.25 not for a 500-ml bottle of water, not for a big office cooler full, but $2.25 for one million litres of water?

Sounds ridiculous given the retail price, but that’s the unbelievably low rate the BC Liberal government has given to giant multinational firm Nestle and others to extract fresh, clean groundwater to bottle and sell for exorbitant profits.

The price is so outrageous I have to repeat it - Nestle Waters Canada pays the province just $2.25 for each one million litres of water.

The total estimated price of all the water Nestle will bottle from B.C. in an entire year is - wait for it - just $562 a year.

But, if you can believe it, that’s an improvement - because until recently they got it all for free.

It must be nice to have an endless supply of potable water where you can take as much as you like, sell it for an enormous profit and pay a pittance at worst for millions of litres of liquid gold.

Unfortunately, I have to confess a terrible sin - I drink bottled water regularly - and mostly Nestle products.

I pay 50 cents a bottle - and I know I should be drinking tap water in the metal refillable container currently gathering dust in my house.

Don’t bother lecturing me - at least I’m drinking healthy water and hydrating myself - but this farce make me really rethink my willingness to line their pockets.

I feel apologetic, but Nestle doesn’t for its role.

“We’re investing millions of dollars in that plant. We employ 75 people [and] we pay millions of dollars in taxes,” said Nestle spokesman John Challinor in 2013.

Cry me a river. And at $2.25 a million litres, they can bloody well afford it.

Time to put a serious smart meter on the bottled water tap and make Nestle and others really pay.

Bill Tieleman is a former NDP strategist. Read his blog at Bill Tieleman (http://billtieleman.blogspot.com) Email: weststar@telus.net Twitter: @BillTieleman

I ready about this earlier. We really should put more regulations on how we sell fresh water. Sooner or later there won't be any left. There is already water crisis going on in parts of the world. Should we put more regulations or simply increase the price of the fresh water we are selling?

[Timpo]

so what's the point of this article?

telling people to boycott Nestle water?
or letting us tax payers know that we should be getting free water(or $2.25/million L)?

[AWDTurboLuvr]

People need to understand that the public doesn't pay for the access to water, we pay for the treatment and delivery of water.

[corollagtSr5]

You guys are missing out. 2.25 for 1m litres of water. When are you guys going to start a group buy so we can divide the 2.25. They are complaining about how they aren't getting metered on the water like the public.

[Manic!]

You guys are missing out. 2.25 for 1m litres of water. When are you guys going to start a group buy so we can divide the 2.25. They are complaining about how they aren't getting metered on the water like the public.

They are not getting metered just like people who own there own wells don't get metered. If I dig a hole in my back yard and get water why should I have to pay the government?

[corollagtSr5]

I made the assumption that it was tap water they were bottling. For 2.25 a million liters.

[Manic!]

I made the assumption that it was tap water they were bottling. For 2.25 a million liters.

Nope they use ground water.

[blkgsr]

They are not getting metered just like people who own there own wells don't get metered. If I dig a hole in my back yard and get water why should I have to pay the government?

no but you're also not a massive corporation turning around making a retarded profit margin off of it....

[pastarocket]

This is news??? Corporations have had an influence on political decisions for years in Canada, the U.S., and many other countries.

Big business hiring lobbyists to try to influence politicians to give corporations preferential treatment when it comes to creating legislation which benefits them.

How much benefits (money, hookers, drugs, etc) did Nestle give to B.C. politicians in order that sweet deal on groundwater? :heckno:

You would think our laws would include higher requirements in terms of charging fees for selling groundwater to corporations.

[Ulic Qel-Droma]

people don't give a fuck cuz they're lazy ass mother fuckers that are too lazy to even drink free clean water from the tap or water fountain. they have to buy they're pathetic little bottles of water, plastic and all that for a crazy price, cuz somehow that is easier than accessing the nearest tap.

it's ok. oil was probably free once too.

just wait till water becomes a real commodity like crude oil, then you'll all be hella butthurt and crying shit like "water should be a basic right"

lol.

food should also be a basic right. right?

[Spoon]

food should also be a basic right. right?

Road kill for free :troll:

[adambomb]

Meh. :wgaf:

The only thing that gets the jimmies rustled in BC is immigrants. :toot:

Immigrants buying mega homes, immigrants buying little homes, immigrants buying businesses, immigrants working in businesses, immigrants speaking their native language in businesses.

Nobody gives a fuck unless some immigrant is trying to change what we percieve as "Canadian"

So go ahead Canadian water company. You get a pass. :thumbsup:

[Hondaracer]

fuckin immigrants

[Ulic Qel-Droma]

china gonna buy nestle. like you know... whatever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21lTu6FrTmk

[Expresso]

Most companies are just pulling tap water for their bottled water....

[Ulic Qel-Droma]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_hFTR6qyEo#t=82

[punkwax]

fuckin immigrants

http://media1.giphy.com/media/EqcQaacuiftHW/200_s.gif

[Soundy]

Retarded article is retarded.

That is all.

http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/656/644/c14.jpg

[Gululu]

fuckin immigrants

Immigrants (particularly wealthy ones) are BC's most treasured assets. Without them BC would be in a much worse condition. So you be nice to them.

Unless you can solve Canada's population decline in other ways, otherwise you need continuous incoming stream of immigrants to sustain growth and support aging populations.

this article is true, as I also notice some of my friends have recently acquired local water firms intended specifically to export BC fresh water to China. It's a very lucrative business.

[adambomb]

Immigrants (particularly wealthy ones) are BC's most treasured assets. Without them BC would be in a much worse condition. So you be nice to them.
:failed:

See... Jimmies have been rustled. :awwyeah:

[Adrenaline Rush]

It crazy that people even buy bottled water anymore. I can understand drinking bottled water in 3rd world countries but we live in a place with so much good clean water, it's ridiculous. The amount of treatment our water gets is among the best in the world and people still think bottled is better?

[Y2K_o__o]

It crazy that people even buy bottled water anymore. I can understand drinking bottled water in 3rd world countries but we live in a place with so much good clean water, it's ridiculous. The amount of treatment our water gets is among the best in the world and people still think bottled is better?

Of course is not for us with naturally clean water

I am not too surprise the water would be massively exported to China as they have no control in dumping chemicals into rivers where all the source of clean water are all polluted with heavy metal and shit.

http://prafulla.net/wp-content/sharenreadfiles/2013/02/china_water_pollution_014.jpg

[Manic!]

no but you're also not a massive corporation turning around making a retarded profit margin off of it....

No one is stopping you from bottling your own water and selling it.

Also Nestle is the cheapest bottled water you can buy. The biggest ripoff is smart water from Coke.

[Manic!]

Nestle isn't even Canadian.

And are you sure they are tapping their own groundwater? Cause I think most people are just pulling tap water along with all the other bottled water companies.

It's ground water. If it was tap they would be paying tap water rates.

[Soundy]

It crazy that people even buy bottled water anymore. I can understand drinking bottled water in 3rd world countries but we live in a place with so much good clean water, it's ridiculous. The amount of treatment our water gets is among the best in the world and people still think bottled is better?
Maybe not better... Just more convenient.

Also, not everywhere in BC has the same quality water out of the tap. Much of Chilliwack was under a boil water advisory some months ago because of some treatment issue, for example. The 108 Ranch in the Interior used to be notorious for having very mineral-heavy water - wasn't necessarily bad to drink, but it was far from palatable out of the tap.

[SoNaRWaVe]

you'd be surprised how much controversy there is about tap water. all the additives they add in and how its bad for you and how its possibly carcinogenic blah blah blah.

but to think bottle water is better than tap water because bottle water is cleaner and healthier for you, i just lol

for the paranoid peeps, if you ever do a water analysis between tap water and bottle water, i think you would be surprised.

i agree with soundy though, its the only reason why i personally would ever buy bottle water. other than that, its straight from the tap. its bc's finest drink really.