After rejecting the idea in February, the Legault government now wants to raise the water charge rate, specifically targeting industries that use more than 75,000 liters of this liquid per day.
According to information first announced by The Press then confirmed by Radio-Canada, the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charrette, will table a bill in the coming days to change this fee, which has not changed since 2010.
The CAQ government has always had a vague view on increasing fees for water companies, arguing that the bill would be passed on to consumers.
A ridiculous price
In 2010, royalties in Quebec were the highest in Canada, but now they are considered ridiculous. Currently, the rates in effect are $ 0.0025 per cubic meter, specifically for the pulp and paper and mining industries.
Water bottlers and concrete makers pay $ 0.0070 per cubic meter. This is lower than the royalties required in some European countries.
The Liberal Party, which has already challenged the government on the issue, has indicated that Italy needs the equivalent of $ 2,000 per million liters, and Denmark, $ 10,000 per million liters.
However, the Coalition avenir Québec is committed to reviewing the water charge, the Liberal Party recalled.
Last year, industries and businesses paid less than $ 3 million for the removal of 811 billion liters of water, according to the Department of the Environment.
In his article Monday morning, The Press cite the example of 232,000 Olympic size swimming pools – each containing approximately 3.5 million liters of water.
This would be $ 12 per Olympic pool or $ 0.0000035 per liter of watercan we read
Radio Canada
Source: Radio-Canada
