A plan to buy two water trailers for outdoor festivals and events and to reinstate public tours of the city’s Britannia water treatment plant has passed the planning and environment committee.
The $1.1-million proposal, which includes buying refillable bottles with city logos on them, is meant to increase public confidence in the city’s water and reduce Ottawa’s consumption of the bottled stuff.
The city would also include new drinking fountains in a “limited number of high-visibility, high-priority facilities” of its own in 2011, and make other fountain improvements in coming years.
The committee approved the plan by a vote of 5-3. A few councillors raised concerns about the cost.
The water trailers had been dubbed “Ottawatermobiles,” but the committee approved Somerset Councillor Diane Holmes’ proposal to hold a naming competition.
Lynn Haggarty from the Ottawa Folk Festival called for the water trailers to be fast-tracked in time for the summer. She said the festival had great success when it banned disposable plastic water bottles last summer, and ended up dispensing more than 3,800 litres of city water through “hydration stations.”
The promotional plan is split into two phases.
The first, between 2009 and 2010, has a price tag of $366,000 and involves promotional activities that raise awareness that the water supply is safe, as well as providing better access to drinking water at public events and improving water fountains at indoor facilities.
In the second phase, costing $790,000 over the next three years, staff would expand the promotion of city water.
Orléans Councillor Bob Monette voted against the plan, and said he’s in favour of fountains, but not the additional promotion. The province has already noted that Ottawa has some of the best drinking water in the world, and the message can be spread through public service announcements and other city tools rather than spending more money to promote it further, he said.