ONTARIO'S MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT has effectively thumbed its nose at four or more Dufferin municipalities by hiking the term of a water-taking permit, without due explanation, in the face of wellfounded council and public opposition.

In late November, Amaranth Township, with the support of at least Shelburne, East Garafraxa, Melancthon and Mono, asked the Ministry to reduce the permitted water extraction by Fernbrook Springs Bottled Water Co. Ltd. from the present 100 gallons (454 litres) per minute (gpm), and to shorten the term of the permit. Amaranth had also written to the premier, with the support of those same municipalities.

The permit to be renewed on Dec. 31, 2007, had been for a period of two years from Dec. 31, 2005. Fernbrook had a applied for a renewal for "an indefinite period," which, according to Ministry regulations, could have meant up to 10 years.

By last Friday, neither the Ministry nor the premier's office had responded to the municipalities.

But late Friday, this newspaper learned, after a series of telephone calls, that the Ministry had issued a permit to Fernbrook, effective Dec. 31, to allow extraction of 100 gpm (the same as before) for a period of three years - a hike of one year in the term.

We are not suggesting that a permit of some kind should not have been issued, but there are two points of vital concern.

First, we cannot accept that the Ministry would have done so (in the face of a provincial Level 3 drought) without apprising Amaranth.

Secondly, the Ministry should have taken into account the fact that Fernbrook, currently based in Puslinch Township, was originally an extraction/bottling facility, and that its Amaranth site is now purely for extraction, with the attendant loss of local employment.

On the first point, it is democratically wrong that a provincial ministry should disregard input from local municipalities. On the second, it is patently wrong that the province seemingly failed to consider the change in function of a resource extractor who has chosen to deprive a local area of employment opportunities while carting away its resources without compensation of any kind.

This travesty surely calls for a change in provincial attitudes toward local municipalities.