Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On the issue of the resources that we have on our doorstep and yet seem to import from the South at great cost and harm to our environment.
Mr. Speaker, so far in this session I’ve talked about the abundance of our fish, our wildlife, agricultural opportunities; all renewable resources, Mr. Speaker, right on our doorstep.
Today I would like to talk about how blessed we are to have the water supply that we have in the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, Great Slave Lake is the fourth largest lake in Canada, the ninth largest lake in the world and the deepest lake in North America.
Mr. Speaker, in Hay River where we live on the shore of this wonderful freshwater lake, a case of 35 bottles of water costs $13.24. Mr. Speaker, bottled water can cost 500 to 4,000 times more than tap water. The sad thing is that 40 to 80 percent of water bottles in the NWT end up as litter in our landfills. The bottles take up to 1,000 years to decompose and contribute to plastic waste in our water systems which is harming our wildlife. The withdrawal of large quantities of water to fill these water bottles from springs and aquifers for bottling has depleted household wells in rural areas, damaged wetlands and degraded lakes. It takes three litres of water to produce one litre of bottled water. The total amount of energy embedded in the use of bottled water is the equivalent of filling a plastic bottle one-quarter full of oil, according to the Pacific Institute. By contrast, municipal water requires only a little energy to pump the water through the pipes in our homes.
Mr. Speaker, there are other issues around bottled water which makes it nonsensical for us to ever drink it. In 2000, consumer reports found that eight of ten five-gallon jugs that they checked left residues of the endocrine disrupter Bisphenol A in the water. An expert panel of scientists has concluded that exposure to extremely low doses of Bisphenol A is strongly linked to diseases such as breast cancer, prostate cancer and diabetes, and damage to reproductive and neurological development. Leeching of chemicals into bottled water increases with heat and age, raising concerns about storage and transportation of the bottles. More research is needed on leeching of harmful chemicals from all types of bottles. No problems have been associated with refillable stainless or aluminum containers.
Mr. Speaker, I’m pleased to say today that the Legislative Assembly no longer has bottled water and I want to encourage people to look on our own doorstep and look at the beautiful resources that we have…
