Mayor Miller Ponders Tax On Bottled Water
Posted November 21, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
As Torontonians get used to the idea of paying the new land transfer tax and vehicle registration fee voted in by city council, there’s word of a possible new levy: on bottled water.
According to a published report Mayor David Miller is supportive of a proposal by Parkdale-High Park Councillor Bill Saundercook to add a five cent price hike to water bottled in Ontario and a 10 cent boost to water bottled elsewhere.
“I introduced the Blue Box to Toronto in 1987, and here’s an empty bottle that ends up in our Blue Box that we have now to process,” Saundercook said. “The soft drink industry is making a good profit on water, so they should be paying more for us looking after their empties.”
The councillor pitched the idea last month ahead of a vote on the other two controversial taxes. In a letter written earlier this month Miller said he was for the idea. But it’s far from becoming reality as some councillors including the city’s budget chief Shelley Carroll say it would be costly and impractical to bring in.
The City of Toronto Act gives the municipality broad taxing powers but it can’t tax manufacturers directly – meaning individual store owners would have to collect the tax themselves, a proposal they’re not happy about.
If Toronto does end up popping a tax on bottled water it would follow in the footsteps of Chicago, which last week slipped a five-cent tax on the item.
“There’s a lot of bottled water sold and quite frankly when you take water from the ground that belongs to everybody in Canada and make a good profit on it I think they should share some of that profit,” Saundercook insists.
Some North American cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Salt Lake City, have asked municipal employees to stop buying bottled water, and in Ontario the town of Blue Mountains near Collingwood brought in a ban on the items in city buildings for environmental reasons.
At this point the discussion on a Toronto bottled water levy is still in the “what if” stage and may not go any further than that. GTA residents asked about the idea of paying more generally weren’t in favour of the measure.
“I wouldn’t like it. (The city) taxes us enough as it is,” said Terance Mikle, adding that he owns a Brita water filter pitcher. “I think it’s a little much.”
Kozeta Velaj adds, “I don’t think it would be a good idea because a lot of people drink bottled water and a lot of people are travelling most of the time. So it would be more expensive for them.”
Toronto homeowners will already be paying more for tap water next year as rates are set to rise nine per cent, but experts say the proposed tax may make locals drink the “free” water that already runs into their homes.
“I can vouch for the fact that undoubtedly our water is of the finest quality,” said Patrick Newland, Director of Water Supply for the City of Toronto. “I would put our water up against anybody’s water in the entire world … both bottled and municipal.”
Saundercook also claims the tax would help cut down on the waste and cost of recycling the millions of water bottles each year.
You don’t need a lot of imagination to figure out this tax won’t be especially popular if it’s approved here. How is the newly minted levy playing in Chicago where it’s just become a reality? We’ve put together a list of several stories from that city to gauge the reaction of people there to the tax on bottled water.
What they all seem to have in common is the prediction that residents will go elsewhere to make their purchases where it’s cheaper, potentially driving business out of the Windy City. And as you read them, keep in mind that you may also just be perusing future headlines here.
Bottled Water Just Got Pricier: Chicago Tribune
Bottled water tax reaction: Chicago Tribune
