A misguided crusade
Coun. Harvey Smith's crusade to have bottled water banned from City of Winnipeg facilities is misguided.
The message he hopes to send with his proposal is that tap water is just as good as the bottled version, but in reality his ban promotes the consumption of unhealthier beverages like pop and sugar-based fruit drinks by excluding bottled water from the available options.
Smith claims that the other intent of the ban is to promote a cleaner environment. But if we remove bottled water while allowing vending machines to offer other beverages sold in plastic, we are still doing the environment a grave disservice. A more meaningful proposal would be to insist that all drinks be sold in cans -- which are easier to transport and recycle.
