It is important that the…

It is crucial that the public, citizens like you and me, control our water and wastewater systems.

Having these systems owned and operated by municipalities is important.
Municipal councils are elected by citizens.
Boards of directors -- of both private and publicly owned corporations -- are appointed.
There is a big difference.

There is no public oversight of boards of directors. Board meetings may be private, certainly not as public as municipal council meetings.
The average citizen has no "right" to attend corporate board meetings, even when these corporations are publicly owned.
There may not even BE board meetings!

Take Ontario Place Corporation, for example. The last Annual Report posted on its website is for 2021, Not only were there no board meetings where citizens could learn how our tax dollars were being spent, there wasn't even a Board of Directors in place.

There is no guarantee that publicly owned Water Corporations won't suffer the same fate.

Restricting private ownership alone is not enough. The proposed framework still allows for potential private involvement in management, operations, governance, and financing.
Once we bring in private involvement, providing the service becomes less important than generating profits for the private organizations involved.

Look what's happening to Canada Post, a federal public corporation.
What was once considered an essential service that we paid for with our tax dollars is now being limited because it doesn't make a profit.

I don't want a situation where Ontarians are told we can't afford to provide safe drinking water to communities, whether remote indigenous communities, or small towns like Walkerton, because it's not cost-effective or doesn't make a profit.

Currently, water and wastewater services in Ontario are publicly owned, municipally operated, and run on a cost-recovery basis to serve communities rather than generate profit. 
Keep them this way!

Amend Section 9 of the Water and Wastewater Public Corporations Act, 2025 to explicitly define “agent” as excluding any form of private ownership, control, management, or decision-making authority

Prohibit the use of private and institutional financing models, including private equity and pension fund investment, that generate financial returns from public water systems

Strengthen the Act to explicitly prohibit private management, operation, governance, and financing. No outsourcing, no private financing, and no pathways for private control or profit. These safeguards must be written into legislation and not left to future regulations.