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Remarks prepared for:

The Honourable Laurel Broten
Minister of the Environment

Source protection funding announcement

Port Hope, Ontario
February 15, 2007
Time: 9:30 A.M.

(Check against delivery)

 

Hello everyone, and thanks for coming today.

I’m glad to be here in Port Hope along with my good friend and cherished Queen’s Park colleague MPP Lou Rinaldi.

We’re here today to talk about clean water, specifically what the McGuinty government is doing to ensure that people in Port Hope and in communities across this great province of ours can have confidence their drinking water is safe and protected.

Water that’s clean, plentiful and protected is the foundation for building strong, successful communities and for growing tomorrow’s jobs.

Here we are in Port Hope, a town built on the shore of the greatest source of freshwater on Earth. We know how important these waters have been to our past and how critical they will be to our future.

I’m proud to be part of a government that takes its stewardship role seriously and is committed to building a strong, prosperous future for all our communities.

Our Clean Water Act is helping us get there — by ensuring we have safe, clean and protected drinking water.

Je suis fière de faire partie d’un gouvernement qui prend au sérieux son rôle de gardien du patrimoine naturel, et qui est résolu à bâtir un avenir dynamique et prospère pour toute notre population.

Notre Loi sur l’eau saine nous aide à réaliser cet objectif. Elle le fait en prescrivant les règles à suivre pour que nous soyons certains d’avoir des sources d’eau potable sûres, propres et bien protégées.

This act finally sets in law what we all believe: that it is smarter to prevent pollution in the first place than to have to clean it up after the fact.

The water that comes from your taps is your local water. It makes sense then that you know best how to protect it. You know what the local risks are and the value of keeping it clean.

With the Ganaraska river and Lake Ontario just a few metres away from us, I think it’s fitting we recognize this vitally important resource hasn’t always been treated with the respect that it deserves.

We need to do better.

That’s why we have been partnering with the federal government to clean up areas of concern in our Great Lakes under the Canada-Ontario Agreement.

Under the current agreement, we haven’t been able to progress as quickly as we would like on the Remedial Action Plan for the Port Hope harbour — that’s a fact.

And it demonstrates the ongoing challenges of finding solutions to problems that are costly, not easily resolved, and the result of decades of environmental degradation.

It’s also a stark reminder of the critical importance of preventing contamination in the first place.

The current terms of that agreement expire in March — just around the corner. I’ve already met with the new federal Minister of the Environment and I’ve told him plainly how important re-negotiation of the agreement is to Ontario.

The issues we face in protecting the Great Lakes Basin are far broader and more complex than cleaning up specific areas. We need to tackle long term problems by focusing on critical issues like climate change, biodiversity conservation and clean, safe drinking water.

Other suggested priorities for the renewed agreement look at building on our watershed-based approach to source protection, taking further action on reducing pollutants and promoting sustainable Great Lakes communities.

The Clean Water Act is working to help protect local water sources here and all along the Great Lakes.

Our legislation gives Port Hope and other cities the authority to take action. And we’re backing up that new authority with investments in the best science.

Today, we’re pleased to announce that $35 million dollars is now flowing to conservation authorities and municipalities across the province, including right here in your region.

Of that money, more than $3.2 million dollars is going to our partners within the Trent Conservation Coalition to undertake technical studies on drinking water.

The Trent Coalition includes the Ganaraska river watershed and, of course, the beautiful city of Port Hope.

For the watersheds near Port Hope, five conservation authorities are working together with local communities to build a source protection plan. As well as being part of the Trent Coalition, the City of Port Hope is working with other Lake Ontario municipalities to evaluate threats to their water intakes.

A funding proposal from these municipalities is being reviewed by ministry staff and they’re working to firm up the details, but it will likely be in the range of $2 million dollars.

This brings the total to around $5 million dollars for funding for science to support local source protection plans.

Our partners at the Trent Conservation Coalition show they clearly understand the importance of working together with the entire community to protect our natural environment. While the municipal partners are looking at protections for the Lake, the Coalition will be looking after the watersheds.

We have to ensure the watershed protection activities and Great Lakes activities are effectively linked.

So, we’re looking at the excellent practices of the Trent Coalition to get a clear idea of how watershed protections can help protect our Great Lakes waters too.

We’re seeing great work being done thanks to conservation authorities in this area, including “on-the-ground projects” like the tree seedling stock programs, and partnerships that focus on community involvement in watershed restoration.

The Clean Water Act is building on this kind of work.

I’ve heard from Jeff Leal, who is MPP for Peterborough and also my Parliamentary Assistant, that the Trent Coalition has developed some excellent ideas on how to get people involved in developing community-based plans for protecting water supplies.

All across our province, communities are looking at existing and potential threats to their water quality, so they can take action to reduce or eliminate them.

That means getting an accurate picture of their water supply, how it replenishes itself and what threatens it.

Right now in Ontario, conservation authorities and municipalities are using leading-edge research and technology to build the most comprehensive maps ever of our surface and groundwater supply.

These will be a great jumping off point for the citizens and the community to begin discussing the issues and formulating solutions.

To give watershed plans the strongest possible scientific foundations, our government is providing $120 million to help communities and their partners across Ontario study and assess their watersheds, undertake water budgets and get the science right.

The scope of what’s being accomplished is truly remarkable. We are well into the largest scientific exercise we have ever undertaken to find out how much water we have and how clean and protected it is. This has never been done before in the history of our province.

We have also introduced a drinking water stewardship program that enshrines financial assistance right into the Clean Water act itself.

The financial assistance program is initially investing $7 million dollars to support farmers and small rural businesses for activities that reduce threats to drinking water. Establishing a sustainability program is a significant milestone for rural communities in Ontario, like those of the Lower Trent region.

From day one, we have been adamant: protecting our drinking water sources needs to be based on the strongest possible scientific foundations.

Ontarians expect and deserve no less.

People also need to know their government is working to ensure they have effective plans in place to protect and sustain drinking water sources.

Clean, safe drinking water is a fundamental right … protecting it is a responsibility we all share.

C’est ce à quoi s’attendent les Ontariens et Ontariennes, et c’est exactement ce qu’ils méritent.

La population doit aussi savoir que son gouvernement veille à ce qu’il y ait des plans capables de protéger les sources d’eau potable et d’en assurer la pérennité.
De l’eau propre, qui peut être bue sans danger pour la santé, est un droit fondamental. Protéger cette ressource est une obligation que nous avons tous.

By working together, in partnership with conservation authorities and municipalities, we are ensuring that every community has drinking water that’s safe and clean, protected and plentiful.

And we’re building the kind of future we all want … for our children and our children’s children.

Thank you.

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