Media Advisory: Former City Councillors to call for bottled water ban in city facilities

For World Water Day, two former city Councillors, students, and water experts will be petitioning City Hall to do what other cities have done and start the removal of single use plastics from city facilities. Read about OWSAG's World Water Celebration below.

Media Advisory
Ottawa Water Study Action Group (OWSAG)

Less Plastic, More Life
The best water in town is on tap

Ottawa, March 24, 2019 - The Ottawa Water Study Action Group (OWSAG) is organizing a celebration of Ottawa City water and is using the occasion to demand that City Council to ban the use of single use plastic bottles in all city facilities.

Two former city Councillors, students, and water experts will be petitioning City Hall to do what other cities have done and start the removal of single use plastics from city facilities.

On Monday, March 25 at noon in the foyer at City Hall, OWSAG, Diane Holmes, and Clive Doucet will call for the city to ban bottled water in all city facilities.

“The city presently spends 95 million dollars on providing clean water annually and only 10 thousand dollars on the promotion of its own world-class water,” said Diane Holmes.

“The planet’s oceans are choking on plastic,” said Doucet. “We can reduce that river of plastic to the ocean by increasing the use of fountains and tap water in public spaces.”

The exceptional quality of Ottawa’s tap water is well known and is subject to thousands of tests annually to ensure its purity.

For media inquiries:
Stephanie Johnson
416-523-4700
[email protected]

Quick facts:
▪ The city agreement with Coca Cola to provide bottled drinks at city facilities will sell 360,000 plastic bottles over the next two years.
▪ Recent tests on bottled water by McGill university and reports by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) have shown that poorly regulated bottled water is often inferior to municipal tap water.
▪ Ottawa city water is regularly monitored (300 times/day) and is consistently rated as excellent.