CANADIAN POLITICS:

THE GREAT FEDERAL THIRST:

This one would almost be funny if it wasn't such an egregious example of government waste. All the blah, blah about plastic containers and the environment aside, the whole bottled water industry is notorious for being an incredible scam. Bottled water is generally no better than the average tap water. In a lot of cases (perhaps the majority) it actually is tap water, run out of the tap in one place and sold in another. Then there is the "bizarre factor". Molly has a vision of Sneaky Stevie doing an Uncle Scrooge imitation and swimming in his vault loaded with plastic bottles of water. Or maybe they just use the stuff to fill Stevie's swimming pool. In any case, here's the Story from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

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Feds spend millions on bottled water: report:
A report from the Polaris Institute and CUPE Nova Scotia shows the Canadian government is spending more than $7.2 million on bottled water.

Bottled Watergate: Why is the Federal Government spending millions of tax dollars on bottled water? draws attention to the federal government’s growing dependence on bottled water.

After the report was released, the government itself revealed it had actually spent more than $10 million in the last three years and $15 million in the last five years.

Findings include:
**Since April 2006, the Government of Canada has spent more than $7,296,738 on 131 separate contracts to buy bottled water
**Seven federal departments in eight provinces have bottled water contracts
**The same amount of money could have been used to pay for 2,918 indoor or 584 outdoor water fountains
**The same amount of money could have been used to upgrade a water treatment plant in a First Nations community

“Bottled water may serve a purpose in situations where potable drinking water is not available, or in certain emergency situations, but it is not a substitute for the tap nor is it a long-term solution,” says Joe Cressy, Polaris Institute campaigns coordinator. “The solution is publicly-delivered tap water”.

“It is deeply troubling that the Canadian government is spending millions of dollars on bottled water,” says Danny Cavanagh, President of CUPE Nova Scotia. “Water fountains, accessible taps, water treatment plants – just think what the Government of Canada could do if it properly invested $7.2 million.”
**See also: the information NDP MP Bruce Hyer uncovered when he asked what the federal government spends on bottled water