GUELPH – Wellington Water Watchers (WWW) is calling on the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) to immediately withdraw its Environmental Registry proposal 025-0730, which would allow water taking permits to become transferable assets.
“This change undermines hard-won environmental protections, violates public trust, and enables the unchecked expansion of corporate control over precious groundwater,” WWW officials stated in a press release.
“This proposal is reckless,” stated WWW executive director Arlene Slocombe.
“Water permits should never be handed off like real estate deeds. Communities and ecosystems deserve a say every time water is taken from the ground —not just the first time. Particularly Indigenous communities from whose treaty lands this water is extracted while many still experience water insecurity.”
This change comes just months after Ice River Springs acquired the water bottling operations formerly held by Nestlé and then BlueTriton/Primo.
With the addition of Aquaterra, this conglomerate now controls an estimated 85% of all bottling permits and up to 99% of the total volume of water taken for bottling in Ontario, WWW officials stated.
Ontario’s current rules require that a new owner must apply for a new permit to take water.
WWW officials say this process ensures:
– environmental assessment of changing conditions;
-public consultation and transparency;
– review of purpose, volume, and ecological risks;
– adherence to Indigenous rights and duty to consult.
“Allowing automatic permit transfers bypasses all of these safeguards,” officials continued.
Water Watchers – alongside Indigenous leaders, youth, and civil society allies – has opposed industrial water bottling since 2007.
“We helped stop Nestlé in 2020 and BlueTriton in 2025. We will not stop now,” officials stated.
WWW call on people to submit comments to Minister Todd McCarthy and Premier Doug Ford at win.newmode.net/waterwatchers/waterpermitsarenottransferableassets-1 and ero.ontario.ca/notice/025-0730.
