Peterborough will phase in a ban on the sale of bottled water at municipal facilities over the next several years, city council decided Monday night.

It’s a way to promote the municipality’s clean, potable water and to show that the city cares about the environment, Coun. Dean Pappas said, adding that it takes 1.5 million barrels of oil to produce plastic bottles for water in the United States each year.

“It’s a public service that’s being slowly privatized. What are we going to pay for next? Air?” Pappas said.

A Nestle Canada representative urged council to work with the company on recycling initiatives rather than banning the sale of bottled water in municipal facilities.

HALIFAX, NS – At the annual convention of CUPE Nova Scotia, Premier Darrell Dexter announced that Nova Scotia would become the first province in Canada to ban bottled water.

Premier Dexter announced that the Department of the Environment will develop a policy that will ban the sale of bottled water in all provincial facilities that have potable water.

Peterborough could gradually move towards stopping the sale of bottled water at city-owned facilities, city council decided on Monday.

Council, sitting as committee of the whole, which means the item must return to a regular council session for approval, endorsed stopping the sale of bottled water as current contracts with food service providers expire and the city installs alternative drinking water systems in city facilities.

It would be a long-term transition. Pepsi Bottling Group, for example, has contracts that expire in 2013 and 2016 for supplying products at locations such as the Memorial Centre and Kinsmen Civic Centre.

City council will ponder whether to shut off the tap on bottled water sales in city-owned facilities when it meets as committee of the whole on Monday.

It likely wouldn’t be an immediate ban on bottled water sales in city-owned facilities. The city has contracts with several food service providers for its facilities and some of those companies specifically have the right to sell bottled water written into their agreements.

City staff are recommending that the city gradually stop the sale of bottled water as the current contracts with food service providers expire.

Alternative drinking water systems would be installed in city facilities.

Trent University chancellor Tom Jackson launched his Dreamcatcher workshop series with a town hall-type meeting on water issues at the Camp Kawartha Environment Centre on Monday.

Jackson, who was sworn in as chancellor in September, urged the about 100 attendees to inform the public about water issues to help people push for change at the ballot box.

“We are on the edge of a global catastrophe,” he said. “One of the reasons I took on this wonderful position is that I’m determined to protect our future.”

Peterborough Mayor Paul Ayotte, City of Kawartha Lakes Mayor Ric McGee, Otonabee Region Conservation Authority chairman and Asphodel-Norwood Deputy Reeve Terry Low, Greater Peterborough Innovation Cluster co-founder and CEO Jeremy Carver and Peterborough Health Coalition member Roy Brady were among the participants.

Even in a city “blessed with an abundance of water,” residents need to be aware of where their water is coming from and what they can do to help conserve and protect it.

In the words of Peterborough Green-Up’s Alix Taylor, this was the message of an event held at the Canadian Canoe Museum on Monday, in recognition of World Water Day.

“In Peterborough it’s very easy for us to neglect water because we have so much of it,” said Taylor, the event’s co-ordinator. “We do need to be conscious of what we’re putting in it.”

Trent University is exploring the idea of banning bottled water sales and water coolers on campus after a student association presented student survey results and a petition in support of the initiative.

The university’s administration is asking staff and faculty to fill out a survey before a committee decides whether to recommend the bottled water ban. That survey closes on Friday.

A draft policy could go to the university’s president in May or September, associate vice-president of student services Meri Kim Oliver said.

“It’s something that everyone is interested in in terms of the environmental impact of bottled water and also the social issue of having water available to everyone and not having to pay for it,” she said.

Water is something that we all take for granted until we turn on the tap and it doesn’t freely flow into our waiting glass. We can’t live without it and increasingly its becoming harder and harder to come by.

We’re really quite spoiled here in the Peterborough area. We’re lucky to live in a place that’s rich in water resources. We have our beautiful Kawarthas, and our clear, fast flowing Otonabee River. A shortage of water isn’t something we think about often.

Regular readers of this column know that through my university days I worked at large retailers to pay the bills. One thing that always astonished me was when bottled water would go on sale. People would literally fill entire shopping carts with cases of water, in total leaving the store with over 100 individual bottles at a time.

Local residents who want to prove their dedication to environmental causes now have a special incentive to do so.

This month, Peterborough Green-Up is offering prizes to those who pledge an “act of green” as part of the non-profit group’s One Thousand Acts of Green contest.

The local organization is asking the people of Peterborough to register on its website, where they can calculate their personal impact on the environment—their “carbon footprint.”

Those who register will have the opportunity to commit to a simple act, such as turning off the tap while they brush their teeth, to reduce their carbon footprint and decrease their environmental impact.

There are changes ahead for Peterborough Utilities customers and the electricity provider plans to keep them informed every step of the way.

Testing of the new smart meters installed on customers’ homes is ongoing; once it’s complete, they’ll go online, with a new billing formula launching.

Peterborough Utilities plans to keep its customers in the loop during the changeover.

“Absolutely—we are going to do a huge public information campaign,” said David Whitehouse, Peterborough Utilities’ manager of customer service.