ABERFOYLE – BlueTriton Brands is closing in Ontario and expects to wind down operations by the end of January.
That includes the water bottling site in Aberfoyle, which will go up for sale, a company spokesperson confirmed.
BlueTriton bought out Nestlé Waters Canada in 2021 and announced on Nov. 8 it had been purchased by Primo Brands.
But closing Ontario operations, “was a difficult decision, unrelated to our merger with Primo,” stated the email from the BlueTriton spokesperson, who asked not to be named.
“We will continue to serve our customers through this transition period and will continue to have operations in Canada in our Hope (B.C.) facility, which will serve our business in the western provinces as well as some of our U.S. Pacific northwest business,” the company states.
The closure is a blow to the community, said Puslinch Mayor James Seeley.
He noted about 200 people work at the Aberfoyle plant, most of them Wellington County residents.
“Blue Triton was the third largest taxpayer in Wellington County,” Seeley stated in an email.
“Along with the loss of jobs, this is significant to our community.”
Seeley said water monitoring proved the company had a safe operation.
“BlueTriton was a great corporate citizen, contributing to local service groups within Puslinch and surrounding area,” he said.
However, grassroots water advocacy group Wellington Water Watchers is calling the plant’s closure a “historic win for water justice.”
Wellington Water Watchers formed in 2007 in opposition to Nestlé’s water-taking in Aberfoyle and later opposed its acquisition of a well just outside Elora and another near Hillsburgh.
The group was successful in convincing the province to call a moratorium on water-taking permits for bottled water companies and, in 2021, the province changed the way it issues permits.
Now municipalities have more say on whether water bottling companies can use groundwater in their areas and there are more restrictions on water-taking permissions, especially during periods of drought.
“This landmark decision to leave Ontario water bottling marks a significant victory in the ongoing battle for water justice in Ontario,” states a press release issued by the Water Watchers.
It goes on to thank and congratulate members for their advocacy and public campaigns, which officials say effectively changed thinking about bottled water.
“The impact of the community’s efforts has been substantial: over nine years, no water has been taken from the Middlebrook well (Elora), and with the closure of BlueTriton’s operations, even more drinking water will be protected for the common good,” the group states.
The BlueTriton bottling plant and head office, formerly owned by Nestlé Waters, in Aberfoyle. Advertiser file photo
Wellington Water Watchers founder Mark Goldberg called BlueTriton’s announcement, “a monumental win in our community’s journey for water justice.
“It has been a David and Goliath story but proof positive that committed and sustained pressure can turn even companies as formidable as Nestlé, and now BlueTriton.”
Water Watchers executive director Arlene Slocombe noted people will lose jobs and that is distressing.
“While we celebrate this victory, we also advocate for a just transition for those who sustained their livelihoods through this industry,” she said.
Elora resident Donna McCaw, a member of the Elora group Save Our Water, said in a phone interview the closure is a great victory.
“We’re very pleased and proud of what the community has done,” she said.
“Wellington County will no longer be seeing its water being sent out of province.”
McCaw noted BlueTriton owns the Middlebrook well just outside of Elora, but since Centre Wellington is not a willing host municipality, the company has not been extracting water there.
Centre Wellington needs four new wells to accommodate growth.
Allowing a water bottling company to extract 1.6 million litres of water a day, “would be madness in our area. We are so water challenged,” McCaw said.
“We’ll have to see who the purchaser is.”
The company did have a permit to extract 1.1 million litres/day from the Hillsburgh well and trucked it to Aberfoyle for bottling.
“This is welcome news for our community, who continue to face water insecurity in our home reserve of Six Nations,” stated Dr. Dawn Martin Hill, a Mohawk woman from Six Nations.
“It is appalling that while we don’t all have safe drinking water in our homes, this company has been allowed to extract precious groundwater from our treaty lands and sell it back to us.
“Six Nations demands compensation for the years of profit from this water taking.
“And we never want to see those wells used for corporate profiteering ever again.”
Water Watchers will hold a celebration in the near future, but in the meantime, it continues to call for:
- a just transition for all current employees of BlueTriton;
- the return of well ownership to local, Indigenous-informed stewardship;
- compensation for Six Nations of the Grand River for the extensive extraction without consent;
- the Province of Ontario to phase out permits for water bottling; and
- legal recognition of the human right to water in Canada.
“Water Watchers urges all of Canada to view this milestone as a testament to the strength of collective action and ecological stewardship and to join them in the ongoing struggle to protect water as a shared commons,” the press release stated.
