Quebec environment groups say they are going to court to lift the veil on the millions of litres of water collected by Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Naya, Eska and others every year.

The Canadian Press has learned that the case will be heard on March 1.

Revealing this confidential information could reopen the debate on water royalties received by the province, which opposition parties have long considered too low.

The Access to Information Commission had previously refused to release the information on the grounds of commercial confidentiality.

However, Eau Secours and the Centre québécois du droit de l'environnement (CQDE) are challenging the decision in Quebec Court.

"When the population requests access to information on quantities of water withdrawn by large-scale water collectors, access is denied, but for us, it is common sense and that is why we are going before the courts," explains lawyer Marc Bishai.

As a result, the organizations believe that citizens have a right to know how this "vital, depletable and vulnerable" resource is being used.

Advocates insist accurate data is needed before a debate can be launched on the sustainability and prices of withdrawing high volumes of water.

"We can certainly have debates on this issue," said Bishai. "But before we can even discuss it, we don't even know how much water is being withdrawn by each company. Once we have that information, we can have a lot of intelligent discussions about water impact, possible conflicts of use, appropriate charges."

Last week, the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) and the Parti Québécois (PQ) called for a revision of water rates, which have gone unchanged since 2010.

The governing Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) says it is committed to reviewing the fees, but Environment Minister Benoit Charette refused to do so as part of a review of Bill 102, the Environment Quality Act, which is currently underway.

The fees charged in Quebec are apparently much lower than in neighbouring province Ontario.

In 2018, it was reported that two billion litres of bottled water in Quebec generated less than $150,000 in revenue for the Treasury.

That same year, Ontario received $23 million for water taken, according to Liberal MNA Isabelle Melançon.

The royalty rate is currently $2.50 per million litres of water and $70 per million litres of water for bottled water, the manufacturing of beverages, certain mineral and chemical products, pesticides and oil and gas extraction.

"In comparison, Italy charges $2,000 per million litres and Denmark charges $10,000 per million litres," said Melançon.

The regulation applies to all industries that withdraw or use 75,000 litres of water or more per day.

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Feb. 14, 2022.