Schreiner to Liberals: Protect Guelph’s water from private profiteers

QUEEN’S PARK — Today, Mike Schreiner, leader of the Green Party of Ontario, hand-delivered 1,700 postcards signed by people from Guelph and across the province to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, urging him to protect Ontario’s water once and for all. Schreiner has collected over 8,000 signatures in total to protect water.

“The multiple threats to our drinking water – climate change, urban sprawl and irresponsible quarry development – have come to a head in my home of Guelph and people are demanding the government finally take action to protect water,” said Mike Schreiner.

​For decades, successive provincial governments have devoted less and less money to natural resource management, and the Green Party is sounding the alarm on the negative impacts.

“This is not just an environmental issue; it’s about protecting the water that keeps us all alive. It’s time we start managing this resource as a public trust rather than let it be systematically depleted by big corporations that take the water and run. Thousands agree and I am bringing their voices to Queen’s Park,” said Schreiner.

The Green Party of Ontario has led the charge at Queen’s Park to safeguard our water from large mega quarry and landfill projects, single use bottled water, and urban sprawl. Greens would raise water taking fees so that companies pay their fair share to cover sustainable water management. Greens would legislate a priority of use for water that makes public drinking the top priority.  We would ban fracking and cancel plans for burying nuclear waste near the Great Lakes.

The postcard campaign calls on Minister Ballard to:

1. Fix the Permit to Take Water process to put public drinking water in our communities first

2. Not renew the Dolime Quarry’s water taking permit without the City of Guelph’s conditions

3. Raise the water taking fee to properly fund sustainable water management

“We need transformative change in Ontario to make safe drinking water the top priority in all water use decisions, and the Green Party is determined to do that,” said Schreiner.