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Notes for remarks

by

The Honourable Laurel Broten
Minister of the Environment

Funding Announcement —
Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority

Walkerton City Hall
Walkerton, ON
Monday, April 24, 2006

(Check against delivery)

Good afternoon, everyone and thank you for coming out.

I’m very pleased to join Mayor (Charles) Bagnato and the various community leaders who are present here today.

We’re joined by our partners from the Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority, including chair Doug Freiburger and Don Smith, the project manager for source protection.

The Saugeen Valley CA has a long and impressive history in meeting the needs of this region — from the flooding problems that spurred the creation of Ontario’s conservation authorities in the early 1950s … to more recent concerns about protecting the Saugeen River and local aquifers.

Perhaps more than anywhere else in Ontario, people here understand the value of safe, clean drinking water.

Nothing is more essential to our health and quality of life — and there is no higher priority for our government.

Rien n’est plus important pour la santé et le bien-être des résidentes et résidents de l’Ontario, et aucune priorité n’est plus importante pour notre gouvernement.

In this province, there’s no question — we are blessed with an abundance of fresh water. We have more than a quarter of a million lakes, rivers and streams.

And we share the vast reservoir of the Great Lakes Basin.

But there’s not a single person here today — or anywhere in Walkerton, for that matter — who would think that we’re immune to the consequences of contaminated water. Far from it …

You have lived the drama of a contaminated water crisis in this community. And as a result, you’ve touched the hearts of Ontarians — and Canadians — with your determination to make sure that no other Ontario community has to experience what happened here.

You’ve also moved ahead of the curve when it comes to taking action to protect your own water resources. That was clearly demonstrated by the quick action your Council took on the recent issue of nitrates.

My ministry worked in partnership with the municipality, the Conservation Authority and the local health unit, on developing a procedure for reporting cases where provincial nitrate standards are exceeded.

At the Walkerton Clean Water Centre, Dr. Saad Jasim and his staff are establishing a world-class institute dedicated to the safety and security of our province’s drinking water supplies.

Some really exciting things are happening here at the Centre.

There are plans for an innovative technology demonstration site … along with a scholarship program to promote advances in education, research and technology.

All this shows the positive progress that we’re making. But in terms of a legacy, Walkerton has prompted us to rethink the way our drinking water is protected.

We continue to move ahead in fulfilling the recommendations made by Justice O’Connor.

Over the last two years, our government has also hired more water inspectors, and introduced new rules for training the people who operate municipal water treatment systems.

We have implemented yearly inspections for municipal residential drinking water systems across the province and twice-yearly inspections at the labs that test our drinking water.

Our government is providing financial assistance to help communities upgrade their water and sewage systems, to help reduce the risk of contaminated drinking water. This is critical because more than half on Ontario’s pipes are more than fifty years old; many of them are over a hundred.

Many ‘boil water advisories’ get issued as a precautionary measure when there is a mechanical breakdown in the infrastructure. One broken pipe can cause anxiety and disruption in hundreds of households.

Continued investment in infrastructure will lower the risk of these sorts of disruptions and help us reduce the risks of contaminated drinking water.

Our government is passionate about ensuring people have water that’s protected and plentiful.

That’s why we’ve introduced legislation that we think was long overdue — our own Clean Water Act.

The proposed Clean Water Act completes our shift in thinking by making prevention the foundation of our efforts.

It reflects our government’s most fundamental beliefs about drinking water and the best ways to protect it.

The proposed Clean Water Act is locally driven because we believe that water protection is very much a local issue.

We want to make sure that people in every community across the province have a voice in developing workable, effective solutions.

It’s our strong belief that the local authorities are in the best position to determine the protection measures that are needed in their own community …

They can best decide how these measures should be carried out … who should take responsibility for leading them and how you can best ensure your community has a protection plan that works.

This ground-breaking piece of legislation sets prevention — above all else — as its fundamental principle.

The proposed Clean Water Act would give communities the power to take steps to prevent potential threats from becoming serious problems.

It would do this by requiring a source water protection plan for each watershed in Ontario.

Here, Conservation Authorities are poised to take a coordinating role. They manage water resources across political boundaries and in a way that is sensitive to the concerns of the municipalities they work with.

And our proposed act will be based on the best available science. If we are going to effectively protect our drinking water, we need to know how much we have in reserve, how it replenishes itself, and what poses a threat to our supply.

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 supplies.

This is part of our government’s recent 67-million dollar investment in the science of drinking water protection.

Earlier this month, I’m pleased to tell you, our government provided the Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority with over $1.4 million dollars for scientific studies. In fact, we have now provided more than three million dollars over the past two years to Saugeen Conservation and its partners to support watershed planning.

The most recent funding includes:

• $655,000 dollars for Great Lakes studies
• $721,000 dollars for groundwater studies and
• $64,650 dollars for surface water studies.

Those studies will provide a better understanding of this area’s water sources.

That’s good news for people here.

Now the Saugeen Conservation and its partners — including the Municipality of Brockton and the Grey Sauble Conservation Authority — will be better able to protect local drinking water.

We all share in the responsibility to ensure that our waters support good health, a great quality of life and strong communities like this one.

Our government is fortunate to have partners like the Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority who share this responsibility and share our commitment.

We owe it to each other — more importantly we owe it to future generations — to our children and their children.

I look forward to continuing to work with you towards our shared goal: healthy, clean, life-sustaining water.

Thank you.

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