Mr. Speaker, today I congratulate Bill Goers, recipient of the fourth annual World Water Day award. Bill was recognized at Victoria's Toast to Tapwater event for bringing back to life Fernwood's Spring Ridge community well, one of the first public springs to be protected in B.C. in the 1800s.
Through this toast to public water, Bill and the Greater Victoria Water Watch Coalition want government to understand that public water is critical to our collective future.
They ask that the federal government show leadership on the global stage and recognize water as a human right, that Ottawa address the lack of clean water in first nations communities, wanton waste of water in tar sands development, unsustainable escalation of the bottled water industry, and the alarming pressure for privatization of our dwindling fresh water resources.