No moratorium on bottled water plant proposal: minister

The province will not be placinga moratorium on a bottled water plant proposal until the new Water Act is finalized, despite calls from the Green Party and the Progressive Conservative Party to do so.

Robert Mitchell, minister of communities, land and environment, explained after Wednesday's environment standing committee that the province will be holding public consultations on a draft of the Water Act, which will provide an opportunity to research how Islanders feel about the issue.

Public consultations

"This is something that came to the forefront in the last several weeks. It's developing a lot of conversation. I think all that conversation can be brought forward in a very productive, proactive way as we move forward as to how this should be handled," he said.

Pure Island Waters Ltd. is proposing to set up a water bottling plant in Brookvale, P.E.I. Given the smallamount of water the company plans to extract, the province says an environmental assessment is not needed.

• Pure Island Waters looks to open water bottling plant in Brookvale

Mitchell added that once the act is finalized, the issue ofwater extraction levels could change.

"At the end of the day, there can be many, many changes [that] come from all this," he said.

Mitchell also noted that there are companies on P.E.I. bottling water.

"This is something we should look at in its entirety, and the best opportunity to do that is through the process of the Water Act."

• MORE P.E.I. NEWS |Slushie machine stirs things up at P.E.I. school
• MORE P.E.I. NEWS |UPEI students 'Trick or Eat' for campus food bank on Halloween night