WC136 MayJune 2024 - Magazine - Page 31
Ontario
There is a lot of data about water usage that is available
in Ontario, but it becomes a game of mix and match for
anybody who wants to take a good hard look at who is
permitted to use how much water. Gary Wheeler, of the
Communication Branch of the Ministry of Environment,
Conservation and Parks walked Water Canada through the
province’s licencing system.
“The Ontario Water Resources Act requires anyone who
takes more than 50,000 litres of water in a day in Ontario
to obtain a Permit to take Water, with a few exceptions. All
permit holders are required to submit records of daily water
taking to the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and
Parks on an annual basis by March 31st of the year following
the water taking,” he explained.
The catch with looking at the Water Taking datasets,
however, is that there are no permit-holder names included in
the data, just licence numbers. To figure out who the licence
belongs to, that requires looking up the licence number in
another dataset: the Permit to Take Water dataset. Merging
the two datasets is the best way to have all of the relevant
information in one place.
A data analyst did just that for Water Canada. As it turns
out, individual power-generating stations and organizations
are the licence holders with the highest allocations, but there
are other industries and companies worth noting. One of
the businesses making the list of top ten highest users of
water was Jungbunzlauer Canada, the Canadian division of
a company that produces products and ingredients such as
citric acid, xanthan gum, lactic acid, active pharmaceutical
ingredients and corn gluten feed. Companies that produce
steel, petrochemical and paper and wood products were also
given large water-taking allotments in 2023.
Top Non-Municipal Water Takers in Ontario (2020)
Getty Images
Bruce Power Inc.
Portlands Energy Centre Inc. operating
as Portlands Energy Centre L.P.
BBF/CTR Hydrokap G.P. Inc.
Thorold Cogen L.P.
Jungbunzlauer Canada Inc.
Stelco Inc.
Petro-Canada Lubricants Inc .
Resolute FP Canada Inc.
AV Terrace Bay Inc.
Suncor Energy Inc.
Source: Ontario Data Catalogue
Total Litres Taken (Billion)
0
WAT E R C A N A D A . N E T
100
200
300
400
500
600
Quebec
CBC News recently produced a comprehensive article that
took a deep dive into Quebec’s water usage. The national
broadcaster examined data the province has recently made
available online regarding water-taking. It reports that in
2022, mining and pulp and paper companies racked up the
highest water draws in the commercial and industrial sectors.
The CBC’s list of top 10 industrial water takes has Rio
Tinto using 73 billion litres, ArcelorMittal using 64 billion
litres, Westrock requiring 60 billion litres, Kruger taking 57
billion litres, Rayonier Advanced Materials using 52 billion
litres, Canadian Electrolytic Zinc accounting for 49 billion
litres, Resolute FP needing 47 billion litres, Nordic Kraft
using 41 billion litres, Fibrek (part of Resolute FP) taking 29
billion litres and Domtar using 27 billion litres.
New Brunswick
Water usage data from New Brunswick is hard to come
by. Clarissa Andersen, a communications officer for the
Department of Environment and Local Government,
explained to Water Canada exactly what the province does
and doesn’t make available to the public.
“The New Brunswick Environmental Impact Assessment
Regulation – Clean Environment Act states ‘all waterworks
with a capacity greater than 50 cubic meters of water daily’
require an environmental impact assessment (EIA). As part
of the process, a water supply source assessment is done and
a long-term sustainable pumping rate is established. EIA
Certificates of Determination are available on the department’s webpage and include safe yield for the respective water
supplies.”
“This data is private, for government use, and is not reported publicly,” said Andersen.
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