Is Nestlé Trying to own the World’s Water?

No more so than Canadian Governments/Politicians are trying to extort, humiliate through insult to our intelligence, scam, and steal from the Canadian citizen/taxpayer.

Metro Vancouver residents are being asked to vote on a new 0.5 per cent sales tax to fund a ten-year plan to upgrade the regional transit and transportation infrastructure.

Obviously, the citizens and taxpayers are fed up with governments, politicians and the proposed “Congestion Improvement tax; which is the Mayors’ Council  of Metro Vancouver’s vision for accommodating the region’s next 1.1 million residents in the best interests of our economic, social and environmental health; the Transit Referendum Ballots Ending Up In Apartment Recycling Bins—as well they should.

CBC News checked five buildings in the West End of Vancouver and found discarded ballot packages in four of those five buildings.

VANCOUVER - Ballots for an unprecedented plebiscite begin arriving in mailboxes on Monday asking Vancouver-area residents whether they're willing to foot the bill for a massive public transportation overhaul. The vote gives citizens the option??? of paying a 0.5 per cent sales tax in exchange for a vastly upgraded rapid transit system, hundreds more buses, additional ferries and a new PattulloToll Bridge[the politicians dearly want to impose a toll on all bridges, and many on many highways in British Columbia] — a mammoth package projected to cost $7.5 billion over a decade.

Experts??? say the transportation problems faced by the region's mayors are emblematic of a dilemma for many big Canadian cities: crumbling infrastructure threatening to buckle under growing populations and no money to fix it.

"It's a huge problem everywhere," said Professor. Patrick Condon, chair of the urban design program at the University of British Columbia. "At the same time, the costs of maintaining the infrastructure are increasing proportionately, the taxpayers' ability and their willingness to pay for that increase is decreasing. The current plebiscite is very good case study of that problem."

The Vancouver area faces the same conundrum as Toronto and Calgary, which are both plugging away at expensive transit improvements, and several U.S. cities such as Portland, Seattle and Los Angeles.

On its face, the Vancouver plebiscite appears to be a stop-or-go decision between tax and transit.

Proponents — ranging from mayors to big business to police chiefs — argue the vote is actually a pivotal choice. A Yes vote, they say, will allow them to transform deteriorating infrastructure into their vision for economic and environmental prosperity; a No vote would mean an unsustainable crush of cars on roads. "This is about the future of the region — how it's going to be shaped," said transportation expert Gordon Price, director of the city program at Simon Fraser University.

As an excuse; the tax to the limit champions say upgrades are crucial for accommodating an estimated influx of one million more residents into the Vancouver region over the next 30 years. I wonder, have they yet realised that No Tran$link Tax amounts to a vote of NO CONFIDENCE, technically calling for them all to resign?

Opponents have vilified TransLink, the agency that operates the region's transit system, as wasteful.

There ARE OTHER WAYS OF OBTAINING MONEY, if and when it is TRUTHFULLY, needed.

Nestlé is a Swiss multinational food and beverage company headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland.

Nestlé’s products include baby food, bottled water, breakfast cereals, coffee, tea, confectionery, dairy products, ice cream, frozen food, pet foods, and snacks. Twenty-nine of Nestlé’s brands have annual sales of about $1.1 billion US

 Nestlé has 447 factories, operates in 194 countries. It is one of the main shareholders of L’Oreal, the world’s largest cosmetics company. Nestlé was formed in 1905 by the merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, established in 1866 by brothers George Page and Charles Page, and Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé, founded in 1866 by Henri Nestlé. The company grew significantly during the First World War and again following the Second World War, expanding its offerings beyond its early condensed milk and infant formula products. The company has made a number of corporate acquisitions, including Crosse & Blackwell in 1950, Findus in 1963, Libby’s in 1971, Rowntree Mackintosh in 1988, and Gerber in 2007.

Nestle bottles millions of litres of Canadian water — and pays nothing

A Billion-Dollar Company Extracting B.C.’S Drinking Water For Free, Then Selling it Back to Canadians.

One of the great marketing scams of the past generation, bottled water has been a financial windfall for Nestlé, many other food and beverage companies and for the 1% that control the world’s Eeeek-on-Oh-me—and YOU.

Despite most of CANADA, ALBERTA(artesian well at Niton judged purest natural waterin the world) British Columbia, and including SOME of the U.S. having one of the safest drinking water infrastructures on the globe, bottling companies have made a mint convincing consumers they need water bottled in PLASTIC. Never mind the excessive cost, the plastic waste and fuel wasted hauling heavy crates of water across the country — these companies and trade associations disingenuously position THIS POTENTIALLY POISONOUS bottled water as a “consumer choice,” and a fight against OBESITY???

And, this controversy continues-- in the California desert in the United States --of the Americas. This state, along with much of that country, has endured one of its worst droughts on record. It is estimated that the increasing area of almost complete ground depletion in Arizona, and in California, amounts to better than nine miles a year.

Residents can now be fined up to $500 for excessive watering as spit-spats between farming, fishing, business and environmental interests fester. One company, however, has been bottling water for several years in one of the driest parts of the state, the Coachella Valley.

The Internationally owned Nestlé Corporation which sells the most bottled water in North America., is attracting more attention for bottling water in a region suffering from depleted groundwater. Maybe it’s just a drop in the bucket compared to how else water is wasted in the region. Perhaps Arrowhead-branded bottles of water are significantly contributing to lower aquifer levels.

But we don’t really know because since 2009 Nestlé has refused to disclose how much water it is pumping.

The price of a litre of bottled water in B.C. is often higher than a litre of gasoline.

However, the price paid by the world’s largest bottled water company for taking 265 million litres of fresh water every year from a well in the Fraser Valley — not a cent.

Because of B.C.’s lack of groundwater regulation, And Canada’s lack of ANY RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION: Nestlé Waters Canada — a division of the multi-billion-dollar Switzerland-based Nestlé Group, the world’s largest food company — is not required to measure, report, or pay a penny for the millions of litres of water it draws from Hope and then sells across Western Canada.

According to the provincial Ministry of Environment, “B.C. is the only jurisdiction in Canada that doesn’t regulate groundwater use. The province does not license groundwater, charge a rental for groundwater withdrawals or track how much bottled water companies are taking from wells.

To be absolutely fare--Last year, the B.C. government did announce, with much fanfare, a Water Sustainability Act, intended to modernize the province’s antiquated water laws, which received criticism after it was revealed that Nestlé Waters Canada used 230 million litres of fresh water every year for free from an aquifer in the Fraser Valley.

However, a year later, and people who initially applauded the government’s act are much more restrained in their praise. At issue are the low rates for groundwater. While B.C. will no longer allow companies to take it for FREE, the top rate of $2.25 for every million litres will remain the lowest in Canada. For a company like Nestlé, that works out to just under $600 a year.  

CANADIAN CITIZENS-the TAXPAYERS-THE REAL OWNERS OF CANADA-- SHOULD PAY MORE TAXES???  The government and politicians STILL need to be shown where to shove them.~~Al (Alex-Alexander) D. Girvan.