As you know, we had a major initiative this spring opposing the renewal of Nestle’s water permits at Aberfoyle and Hillsburgh. They currently have a permit to draw 3.6 million litres/day from Aberfoyle and 1.1 million litres/day from Hillsburgh (or about 260 Hillside Festivals every day!).

• With our encouragement, over 8200 letters of objection to the permit renewal were sent to the Ministry of the Environment. The Aberfoyle permit expired at the end of June, and we were surprised to learn that the Ministry has granted an extension to the current permit, stating that more time is required to consider all the comments received. This extension has been reported by Nestle as being until December 2007. However, WWW was told by the Ministry that the extension was indefinite. We are concerned that the Ministry has not notified the public of this non-decision and has not indicated the legal justification for an extension. It appears that a decision has been delayed until after the October 10th provincial election. (The current permit for Nestle’s water taking in Hillsburgh has been extended indefinitely too.)
• WWW arranged to have a letter sent to the Ministry, raising questions about the validity and the legality of this non-decision.
• Since water shortages in Guelph this summer have led to a water use restriction, we feel that Nestle’s daily consumption should be significantly cut back until a final decision is made, and that this decision should come BEFORE the election.