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Media Backgrounder

For immediate release
December 18, 2003

MEMBERS OF THE EXPERT SOURCE WATER PROTECTION COMMITTEES

IMPLEMENTATION COMMITTEE

The 21-member Implementation Committee will provide advice to the government on tools and approaches to implement watershed-based source protection planning. One of the committee’s first tasks will be to provide advice on new and existing roles and responsibilities of the province, municipalities and conservation authorities to implement source protection plans. The committee will also examine innovative funding mechanisms and incentives.

Nigel Bellchamber, Co-chair
Mr. Bellchamber is general manager of the Ontario Municipal Administrators’ Association and past secretary-treasurer of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. A 25-year veteran of local government, his previous experience includes chief administrative officer, Middlesex County; clerk administrator, Huron County; and commissioner of finance and administration, City of London.

Doug Barnes, Co-chair
Mr. Barnes is assistant deputy minister, Integrated Environmental Planning Division, Ministry of the Environment. The division is responsible for integrating the overall policy development and planning functions of the ministry. The division consults extensively on developing policies, strategies and programs that support the ministry's core business of conservation and environmental protection.

Juli Abouchar
Ms. Abouchar is an environmental lawyer and associate at Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers. She served as assistant commission counsel to the Walkerton Inquiry. She has taught environmental law at the University of New Brunswick and Ryerson University.

J. S. (Jim) Anderson
Mr. Anderson is a policy and program advisor with Ducks Unlimited Canada – Ontario Region and leads the public policy program for the region. Founded in 1938, DUC is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of wetlands for the benefit of North America’s waterfowl, wildlife and people. Mr. Anderson has 30 years experience in watershed management with the Ontario government and is a past executive director of Conservation Ontario.

David Armitage
Mr. Armitage is a senior researcher in the Ontario Federation of Agriculture’s Farm Policy Research Group. He is responsible for managing issues pertaining to agriculture and the environment, and provides advice to the OFA Environment Committee and to the Ontario Farm Environmental Coalition. He has been involved in the Environmental Farm Plan Program and ongoing efforts related to nutrient management planning.

Milena Avramovic
Ms. Avramovic is senior policy advisor with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. She is a land use planner with 18 years of private and provincial experience. AMO is a non-profit organization with member municipalities representing 95 per cent of Ontario’s population. AMO has a distinct perspective on municipal issues related to source protection planning.

Dr. Ted Boadway
Dr. Boadway is executive director of Health Policy at the Ontario Medical Association. The OMA is the voice of the medical profession in Ontario, championing the interests of more than 24,000 member physicians, residents and medical students, and their patients. Dr. Boadway was an integral part of the OMA contribution to the Walkerton Inquiry and leads the association's ongoing work to ensure drinking water safety.

Allen Gardiner
Mr. Gardiner is a member of the executive committee of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. He is the OFA regional director for Lennox and Addington County and has been involved with the county’s Federation of Agriculture for many years. Mr. Gardiner’s experience includes serving on a number of OFA committees; vice-chair of the Napanee Region Conservation Authority; and councillor and deputy reeve on his local municipal council.

Michael Garrett
Mr. Garrett is chief administrative officer of York Region. His experience includes CAO of Peel Region and the City of Toronto; water resources administrator, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority; general manager, South Nation River Basin Development; and assistant deputy minister, Ministry of Natural Resources.

Richard D. Hunter
Mr. Hunter is general manager of Conservation Ontario. His experience includes regional director with the Ministry of Natural Resources in southern and northeastern Ontario and 15 years in a variety of positions with the conservation authorities program.

Derrick Kamanga
Mr. Kamanga represents the Chiefs of Ontario which is a coordinating body for 131 First Nation communities located within Ontario. The purpose of the Chiefs of Ontario office is to enable the political leadership to discuss regional, provincial and national priorities affecting First Nation people in Ontario and to provide a unified voice on these issues. The Chiefs of Ontario provides representation to the Assembly of First Nations. Mr. Kamanga is a professional engineer and as quality assurance engineer with the Ontario First Nations Technical Services Corporation he provides advice on water and wastewater systems to First Nations communities.

Peter Krause
Mr. Krause is chairman of Conservation Ontario and the Grand River Conservation Authority. Conservation Ontario is a non-governmental organization that represents a network of the 36 conservation authorities of Ontario. Conservation authorities are local community-based environmental organizations dedicated to conserving, restoring, developing and managing natural resources on a watershed basis. Conservation Ontario has considerable interest and expertise in source protection and watershed planning.

Tim Lotimer
Mr. Lotimer is chair of the Ontario Water Works Association’s Source Water Protection Committee; a member of the environmental geosciences committee of the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario; and past chair of OWWA. A licensed professional geoscientist, Mr. Lotimer is president of Lotowater Ltd., a firm he founded in 1989 to provide professional engineering, geoscience and contracting services, primarily to municipal groundwater users.

John Maaskant
Mr. Maaskant is director of Chicken Farmers of Ontario representing Huron County, chair of the Ontario Farm Animal Council; and has served as vice-chair as well as chair of the OFAC environment committee. OFAC is a coalition of all farm animal and poultry organizations that deals with animal welfare and environmental issues.

Theresa McClenaghan
Ms. McClenaghan has practised public interest environmental law for seventeen years, both in private practice and with the Canadian Environmental Law Association. CELA is a non-profit organization established in 1970 to use existing laws to protect the environment and to advocate environmental law reforms. CELA represented Walkerton residents throughout the Walkerton Inquiry. CELA also authored a major report on safe drinking water for the Inquiry.

Earl Morwood
Mr. Morwood is executive director of the Ontario Ground Water Association. The association is a not- for-profit organization that represents water well drillers, pump installers, manufacturers and suppliers, and groundwater scientists in Ontario. His experience includes past president, Lambton Federation of Agriculture; past director, Ontario Federation of Agriculture and co-founder of the Lambton County Nutrient Management Committee.

Jim Pine
Mr. Pine is chief administrative officer of the County of Hastings. Previously, he served as regional director of Eastern Ontario with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, and CAO in a number of municipalities including the City of Quinte West. He has been active in many municipal organizations including the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.

Patrick Reid
Mr. Reid is president of the Ontario Mining Association which was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province. The association’s forty-eight members are engaged in exploring, producing and processing mineral resources in an environmentally responsible manner. Its three major functions are government relations, education and public communications. Mr. Reid is active in a number of committees including the Canadian Institute of Mining , Metallurgy and Petroleum.

Neil Rodgers
Mr. Rodgers is president of the Urban Development Institute. UDI has acted as the voice of the real estate development and building industry in Ontario for over 40 years. With more than 300 members, the institute is actively involved in all facets of public policy research and advocacy, working with private and public stakeholders across the GTA and Ontario. Membership includes: land developers, builders, land use and environmental planners, investors, financial institutions, engineers, lawyers, environmental scientists, economists, marketing and research firms and architects.

Dr. Gordon Surgeoner
Dr. Surgeoner is president of Ontario Agri-Food Technologies. Currently a professor in the Department of Plant Agriculture at the University of Guelph, he was previously a professor in the Department of Environmental Biology. He has also been chair of the Environmental Farm Plan process for five years.

Peter White
Mr. White is the environment and resources manager of the Aggregate Producers' Association of Ontario. APAO, a not-for-profit organization established in 1956, represents more than 230 companies and corporations in the aggregate industry in Ontario. The association promotes and supports public interest and the wise management of Ontario’s aggregate industry including good management of water resources. Mr. White has experience as a planner specializing in resource protection with the provincial natural resources and environment ministries.

TECHNICAL EXPERTS COMMITTEE

The 16-member Technical Experts Committee will provide advice on an Ontario-based threat assessment process. Areas the committee will advise on include:

• categorizing threats to water;
• linking groundwater protection to surface water management;
• the effects of water-takings on the availability and quality of drinking water;
• appropriate risk management tools for various levels of threats; and
• protecting both current and future drinking water sources.

Gayle Wood, Co-chair
Ms Wood is the chief administrative officer of the Lake Simcoe Conservation Authority, and is also a member of Conservation Ontario.

Joan Andrew, Co-chair
Ms Andrew is assistant deputy minister, Environmental Sciences and Standards Division, Ministry of the Environment. The division’s responsibilities include environmental monitoring and reporting and the development of environmental standards.

Michael Brodsky
Mr. Brodsky served as the chief of environmental microbiology with the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care Central Public Health Laboratory for more than a decade, served as president of several major associations, and is an expert in bacterial indicator organisms and pathogens in food and water.

Robert Clay
Mr. Clay has worked for 25 years on preserving and conserving wetlands across Canada. He has conducted research on wetlands function. He manages Ducks Unlimited Canada’s Habitat Conservation Program, which includes building wetlands for ducks and promoting wetlands conservation and protection.

Marg Evans
Ms Evans is senior policy planner with the Oxford County planning department. She has been extensively involved in groundwater studies and watershed planning in Oxford County and led the development of the county’s wellhead protection program.

Dr. John FitzGibbon
Dr. FitzGibbon is director of the School of Rural Planning and Development at the University of Guelph and chair of the Ontario Farm Environmental Coalition Steering Committee. His areas of academic interest include water resources planning, environmental planning, environmental impact assessment, environmental design, biophysical resource assessment, community impact assessment and sustainable development strategies.

Dr. Michael Goss
Dr. Goss is a professor in the Department of Land Resources Science at the University of Guelph. His current research activities focus on manure management issues including the movement of bacteria through soil and bedrock and their impact on ground water resources.

H. James Hawken
Mr. Hawken is mayor of the City of Temiskaming Shores. He is a professional engineer with expertise in both drinking water provision and sewage treatment, and knows the technical challenges of source water protection in Northern Ontario.

Eric Hodgins
Mr. Hodgins is a manager for the Region of Waterloo in charge of implementing the source water protection program for the Regions’s municipal water supply system. He has a Masters degree in Hydrogeology and his work has focused on the fate of chemicals in groundwater and movement of water through fractured bedrock.

Steve Holysh
Mr. Holysh is a hydrogeologist currently working with the Conservation Authorities Moraine Coalition. He has extensive experience and expertise in the technical aspects of developing watershed conservation plans; recently he has been coordinating the York-Peel-Durham Groundwater Study.

Dr. Douglas Joy
Dr. Joy led the establishment of the Ontario Rural Wastewater Centre. His research includes field and modeling studies of groundwater contaminants (including bacteria), hydrology and studies of surface water quality problems and how to minimize them.

Dr. K. Bruce MacDonald
Dr. MacDonald is a retired scientist from Agriculture Canada. His experience includes evaluating risks to water resources from rural and agricultural land use activities. His range of technical expertise also includes modeling, soils science, climatology and climate change.

Dr. Ronald Pushchak
Dr. Pushchak is a professor in the School of Occupational Health with a joint appointment in the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Ryerson University. His areas of research interest include environmental assessment, facility siting, risk assessment and environmental planning.

Dr. Michel Robin
Dr. Robin is a faculty member at the University of Ottawa. His research focuses on wellhead protection, modeling soil conductivity, and dynamics of fractured bedrock.

Dr. David Rudolph
Dr. Rudolph is an associate professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Waterloo. He is a recognized expert in groundwater flow and has worked on the protection of regional aquifer systems in urban areas.

Dr. David Sharpe
Dr. Sharpe is a geologist affiliated with the Geological Survey of Canada. He was involved in the geological/hydrogeological characterization the Oak Ridges Moraine and through this project managed a multi-disciplinary science team, including geologists, hydrogeologists, hydrologists, geomaticists, geophysicists, geochemists and modelers.

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Contacts:

Arthur Chamberlain Minister’s Office (416) 314-5139

Mark Rabbior Communications Branch (416) 314-6666