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Notes for remarks

by

The Honourable Laurel Broten
Minister of the Environment

to the

Dofasco Centre for Engineering and Public Policy

McMaster University
Hamilton, ON
Friday, March 24, 2006

(Check against delivery)

Thank you, Mo and hello everyone. (Minister introduced by Dr. Mo Elbestawi, Dean, Faculty of Engineering.)

I have to say that I am truly pleased to be here today at McMaster, my alma mater. It brings back many, many memories. The passage of time is a strange thing. Does it seem like yesterday that I was roaming the halls of Mac or does it simply seem like another life entirely? I’m not sure but either way, my advice to you is: enjoy it while you can.

For those of us who watched the Olympics last month in Torino, the words “Passion lives here” will be familiar – we saw that slogan everywhere. I think you’d all agree that passion also lives here at McMaster – and nobody embodies that better than Dr. Gail Krantzberg.

With her passion, vision and dedication, it could very well be that Gail is single-handedly “keeping the Great Lakes great”.

Her enthusiasm for protecting our great asset, the Great Lakes, and turning scientific understanding into practical action is actually contagious. This I’ve learned from some enlightening conversations we’ve recently had.

I think that anyone who is interested in any real, substantive way in the environment should be both excited and curious about what is happening here at the Dofasco Centre for Engineering and Public Policy.

You are pioneering an approach that integrates scientific understanding, engineering know-how and informed public policy. This is still a relatively new way of thinking, both in the academic world and in government.

You have chosen a path of study that has virtually unlimited potential for improving health and well-being. This holds true not just for Ontario and Canada, but for every part of the globe.

I know that some of you have come from other countries and plan to apply what you learn here at home. A gift from Ontario for a sustainable future – that makes me feel good.

Let me be clear. Environmental issues are extremely important to the people of Ontario and they influence our decision-making more than ever before.

You may or may not realize that our Premier, Dalton McGuinty, is himself strongly dedicated to the environment. He believes – and rightfully so – that environmental protection is a vital complement to so many other initiatives.

Today, I want to talk about one of the greatest collective challenges we face: keeping our drinking water safe and clean.

Je voudrais parler aujourd’hui de l’un des plus grands défis que nous ayons à relever collectivement : Faire en sorte que la population ait de l’eau saine à boire.

And if there is one point I want to make today, it is this: Our ability to protect our drinking water and its sources – today and into the future – is directly proportional to our ability to integrate the disciplines of engineering, environmental science and public decision-making into one vital dialogue.

We need to make decisions based on the best available science; we must take advantage of the most up-to-date research and technology.

Solid science will provide us with the understanding of the threats to our water. It will tell us what needs to be done and how to do it. And it will develop realistic and effective solutions that get the job done.

Water is life – its importance cannot be overstated.

Every time we open the newspaper, turn on the television or go online, we hear about and see the devastating effects of violent conflicts around the world. What we usually don’t hear is that unsafe water kills more people around the world than all forms of violence, including war.

In fact, each year more than five million people die from water-related disease.

The World Health Organization estimates that 80 per cent of all sickness in the world is caused by unsafe water and sanitation.

Here’s another sobering fact – at any one time, 50 per cent of the world’s population is sick from the effects of contaminated water.

The effects are also social and economic.

It is estimated that – each and every day – women around the world spend more than 200 million hours collecting water from distant and often polluted sources.

This robs these women of life options and it saddles them with a host of ailments caused by carrying what is often the same weight as the luggage you’re allowed to take on a commercial jet.

Health care systems and local economies are overburdened with the cost of addressing the problems associated with contaminated water.

The impact is felt in revenue streams – especially tourism, which as we know is vital to the economies of so many regions.

Contrast this situation with Ontario, which is blessed with an abundance of water.

Our province is home to more than a quarter of a million lakes, rivers and streams.

We share the vast reservoir of the Great Lakes – the Earth’s largest system of fresh, surface water.

What is even more remarkable is this represents a mere 20 per cent of our water, with the rest originating underground.

Clean water is a birthright for all people, of course, and we are fortunate to live in a land where we can enjoy that birthright.

But our great water fortune also carries with it a responsibility.

We must protect the sources of our drinking water.

We’ve all seen what can happen when we do not have adequate safeguards for these sources.

At Walkerton, we all saw what can happen when our sources are not protected – seven people died and thousands of others became seriously ill.

Other incidents in communities like Kitchener and the Township of Beckwith have shown us that Walkerton was not an isolated incident.

Water contamination can occur anywhere, whether urban or rural.

Our government is meeting its responsibility to protect the health of Ontarians by developing a comprehensive system to protect Ontario’s drinking water from source to tap.

We are making prevention the foundation of our approach through the proposed Clean Water Act. If passed, the Act will give Ontario some of the best-protected drinking water in the world.

With this new legislation, municipalities and conservation authorities, with stakeholders in each watershed, would have the ability to develop their own water protection plans, and to take action to safeguard local water resources in every part of the province.

What this means is that the people who live in a watershed and depend on it every day for their drinking water will be given more of a say in its protection.

If passed, the Clean Water Act will require local communities to look at the existing and potential threats to their water quality and quantity.

And it will empower communities to take preventative steps – by acting before threats to their water quality arise. That could include threats originating outside the community’s boundaries.

Water protection is very much a local issue. Every watershed is different, and local authorities are in the best position to plan and carry out many of the necessary protection measures.

One of the hallmarks of the Clean Water Act is that it recognizes that every watershed is different.

We understand that one-size-fits-all approaches won’t work when it comes to water protection planning.

Each community needs solutions that reflect the nature of its watershed, not arbitrary political boundaries.

Water supplies don’t start at the township line; neither should plans to protect them.

Under the Clean Water Act, each Ontario watershed would in effect be treated as a single community – so that shared local decisions can be developed to manage and protect everyone’s water supply.

En vertu de la Loi sur l’eau saine, chaque bassin versant de l’Ontario serait considéré comme une collectivité à part entière – de manière à ce que les décisions prises localement soient en mesure de gérer et protéger les réserves d’eau de l’ensemble de la population.

Municipalities, conservation authorities, landowners, farmers, industry, community groups and the public would all work together to meet common goals.

Our prevention-based approach is based on a foundation of solid science.

Our $67 million investment will support technical studies to map watersheds, analyze the quality and quantity of water in those watersheds and identify potential threats.

Municipalities and their partners will be able to determine their water needs.

They will be able to identify the areas that need to be protected, and the appropriate actions to protect them.

This will be a text book case of how the links between public policy, the sciences and engineering should play out.

Quality research will be the foundation for unprecedented relationships between different tiers of government to address issues beyond the usual political borders.

This integrated approach is already being used in the protection of our most important water resource – the Great Lakes.

Our government believes that collective action is needed to restore and protect the Great Lakes. It’s a shared resource and a shared responsibility.

That’s why we’re working with the widest possible range of partners, including partner provincial ministries, the federal government, municipalities, First Nations, industries and citizens.

Much of our action is focused on the 17 Great Lakes Areas of Concern identified by the Canada-U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. To give you a sense of the scale of the task at hand, Ontario has invested more than $300 million to date to restore and improve these areas.

We’ve certainly seen good progress on a number of fronts.

More beaches are open for swimming.

There are fewer restrictions on fish consumption.

There have been full scale clean-ups of contaminated sediment, leading to the incremental recovery of beneficial uses.

Two Areas of Concern – Severn Sound and Collingwood Harbour – have been de-listed and monitoring is ongoing to see if we can add Spanish Harbour to the list.

This integrated approach was also the basis for Ontario’s negotiations last year with the Great Lakes States, leading to more effective protections for the Great Lakes, including a ban on bulk water transfers and stronger standards and conservation measures.

We are committed to building on these successes.

One way to do this is through the Canada-Ontario Agreement Respecting the Great Lakes.

As part of our $50 million commitment through the current COA agreement, we are spending more than $14 million this year to clean up the Great Lakes.

And we will be working with our federal partners on a renewed agreement in 2006-2007. I am confident our continued partnership will provide strengthened protection for the Great Lakes.

Our government has taken a number of other steps to help create what Commissioner O’Connor called a multi-barrier approach to water protection.

We have hired more inspectors and now inspect all municipal water treatment plants annually. We have strengthened the rules around issuing Permits to Take Water. Operators of water treatment systems now require more training to be certified.

All of these actions, taken together, are helping us reduce the risk to our drinking water.

Our successes to date all started with good research. The cleanup of the Great Lakes, for example, has been possible in part because we had the information to identify and prioritize our challenges.

One of the greatest challenges in the environment is that we cannot treat issues in isolation. For instance, one of the greatest concerns we have about climate change is that it could have a profound effect on water resources. Scarcity of water is a problem that is likely to get worse as the effects of climate change become more pronounced.

Even here in Ontario, the impact of climate change on water supply could be great. If changing temperatures affect snowmelt and precipitation, water levels in both our surface and groundwater supplies could suffer.

Our government is taking action to address air pollution and climate change. We are investing in transit. We are mandating the use of cleaner, renewable fuel like ethanol. We are closing coal plants and challenging the United States to take action on transboundary air pollution. The benefits of these actions will go far beyond the air we breathe.

Another challenge we face is that when we develop land, we replace natural areas with hard surfaces like roads, parking lots and rooftops. This means less natural filtering of rainwater by the ground, more runoff from built-up areas, and more pollutants entering waterways when it rains.

There are many different ways to approach the problem. Will the solution be new materials, or better urban design, or reducing the amount of pollutants that could potentially get into our water in the first place? I think experience has taught us that it will be a little bit of each of these.

Of course, the need for integrated policy-making is not limited to our province.

Many of the solutions you develop right here in Ontario will be applicable in other lands. But those lands will also have their own host of specific challenges.

Let’s clean up that water, but let’s also find ways to get it to the people who need it.

The recent World Water Forum in Mexico City featured a variety of projects that are helping ensure clean water for people around the world. One project, called TepozEco, uses a variety of solutions including ecological toilets, graywater filters, rainwater harvesting and urban agriculture.

One article about TepozEco told of a woman who was able to store enough water to last several months. Before, she often had to travel great distances on a donkey to get water.

These kinds of solutions will help people worldwide alleviate the whole range of issues involved – there will be better health and less stress on social and economic systems.

The final challenge I want to mention is the need for a better understanding of the links between environmental media and the ways in which, for example, emissions to our air affect our water.

Any reduction in airborne emissions is also going to mean cleaner water in the long run.

The actions that get us there will be both individual decisions and actions taken by governments with their partners.

The choices we make as individuals will help determine the options made available to us in the marketplace. Hybrid cars have fantastic potential. And public transportation could play a huge role, too.

Right now, we know that people want to move in these directions and we are counting on you to make them more and more feasible choices.

At the level of government action, Ontario has several ambitious programs that are going to help reduce emissions to all media, but that also will present you with significant challenges.

Perhaps the most obvious example is our commitment to stop burning coal to produce energy.

Innovation will be at a premium as we move toward cleaner and more renewable sources of power. People know about alternative ways to generate energy, but there’s still a ways to go before they will have complete confidence in them.

We also have a new regulation that includes new standards for 40 harmful airborne pollutants, including carcinogens and other toxins that threaten the health of Ontarians every day.

And we’ve set caps for the largest industrial sources of smog causing emissions. These caps will become increasingly stringent in coming years as technologies catch up to them.

We have an ambitious environmental agenda, but it is dependent on equally ambitious efforts in the scientific and engineering fields.

That’s why I believe you have chosen a field of study with virtually unlimited potential.

Let me tell you, it is an enormously satisfying feeling when you put a policy in place that will lead to real, measurable change for the environment. It’s highly motivating to ‘move the yardsticks forward.’

Environmental science and policy are still young fields and there is great potential to directly shape our future direction.

I’m excited to learn about the work going on at this Centre, and I want to encourage you to apply your knowledge here in Ontario. The links between environment, research and public policy are only going to get stronger in the coming years, and you have a golden opportunity to be at the forefront of this convergence.

We can work together to make our province a beacon of both environmental learning and action for the benefit of all.

Thank you.

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