By Cecilia Nasmith

A six-part motion passed Monday at the committee-of-the-whole meeting of Cobourg council will greatly reduce the use of bottled water at municipal facilities and events.

The motion's origins date back to June, when the Sustainability and Climate Action Advisory Committee made a three-part appeal to council – to recognize the rights to water and sanitation as basic human rights, to consider the banning or phasing out of bottled water in municipal facilities and events, and to consider the installation of two outside water-bottle filling stations each year for the next three years.

“Organizations such as AMO and FCM have held the position for more than a decade that municipalities should be supporting public education to raise the awareness of the safety of municipal tap water and to increase the supply of municipal tap water in all facilities and events,” said the report by director of corporate services Ian Davey.

Davey's report also indicated this would mean a loss to the municipality of $6,500 to $7,000 a year, based on the typical sales in a year of 3,500 to 4,000 bottles of water in the canteens and vending machines at Legion Fields and Cobourg Community Centre. Nonetheless, council proceeded with the motion and passed it. It calls for:

• Engaging the public to determine the current level of support for banning the sale of bottled water at municipal facilities and events.

• Continuing to work with Lakefront Utility Services Inc. to raise awareness of the importance of municipal drinking water.

• Reviewing all contracts with suppliers of vending machines on municipal property to eliminate the sale of bottled water where it currently exists.

• Setting a Dec. 31, 2020, deadline for the phase-out.

• Pursue the project of outdoor water-bottle filling stations (and, in fact, this item has been included in the 2020 budget currently under consideration).

• Updating municipal special-events applications to include a ban on bottled water for any event that utilizes municipal facilities but is not municipally organized.

The capital budget item for the water-bottle filling stations is $24,000 this year, and a similar amount can be expected in the budgets for the ensuing two years.