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Remarks prepared for:

The Honourable Laurel Broten
Minister of the Environment

Standing Committee on Bill 43 – The Clean Water Act

August 21, 2006

(Check against delivery)

Thank you.

I welcome this opportunity to speak to you today about the proposed Clean Water Act.

Let me begin by thanking all the members of the standing committee for your time and your thoughtful consideration of the proposed bill.

This is such a significant piece of legislation and I’m very proud to put forward a bill that will have a profound and lasting impact on our quality of life in this province.

My meetings with people across Ontario have only reinforced for me that this is a valuable endeavour that addresses a real need.  This legislation will empower communities, so it is especially appropriate that the bill is being shaped by so many able hands.

Ministry staff and I have met with more than 300 groups; mayors, farmers, First Nations, conservationists, business leaders and others.

Clearly, we all agree on the fundamental principles underlying the proposed Clean Water Act — that all people deserve to have a supply of safe, clean, drinking water. 

This is a fundamental right.  And it goes beyond the protection of our health.

It helps ensure our quality of life.

Municipalities are both the deliverers and the beneficiaries of clean, safe drinking water.  It’s time they were given a larger voice in how to protect it.  Their role is more than just important: it’s essential, and we intend to give them that voice.

The challenge is how do we get where we need to be?

To ensure our water is protected and plentiful, Justice O’Connor recommended  a multi-barrier approach.  The proposed Clean Water Act fulfills one major component of that multi-barrier approach: prevention.

Over the next week, as you hear from many presenters, please keep in mind that the Clean Water Act will be highly effective at prevention.  It is not designed to do everything.  There is no one tool that alone will protect our water — the act would work in concert with better treatment, monitoring, inspections, certification and training of system operators to deliver a comprehensive and protective system. 

I look forward to hearing the presentations.  Many of the people and groups you will hear from have been deeply involved in source protection efforts, and it’s important that you learn about their excellent work.

I believe you will hear a universal message: treatment alone is not enough.  Prevention is key to keeping our water safe.

This legislation sets prevention — above all else — as its fundamental principle.  Preventing problems from occurring in the first place is far better than having to fix them after the fact.  We believe that communities are best positioned to decide what protective measures are needed, how best to carry them out and who should lead the efforts.

We owe it to all the people of Ontario to make sure what happened in Walkerton never happens again. 

In his report of the Walkerton Inquiry, Justice O’Connor made it clear that the precautionary principle must play an integral role in decisions affecting the safety of drinking water.  The proposed Clean Water Act is inherently precautionary and as regulations are developed under the act, we will be mindful of the precautionary principle.

The Clean Water Act is precautionary because it is proactive.  Communities would look at vulnerable sources of drinking water and evaluate potential threats.  The Source Protection Plans would propose measures to reduce those threats.  Under the act, watershed communities would monitor and evaluate how threats are being reduced and prevented.  Source protection plans would be reviewed and amended over time to respond to new threats and to better protect against existing threats.

The Clean Water Act would ensure that people in communities across the province can protect their drinking water supplies from getting contaminated through locally-driven, science-based source protection plans.

If communities are going to make decisions about protecting their drinking water sources, those decisions need to be based on the best available science and made in consultation with the community.

Nous croyons que ce sont les collectivités locales qui sont les mieux placées pour décider des mesures de protection à prendre, de la façon de les appliquer et des personnes qui doivent s’en occuper.

Si les collectivités prennent des décisions pour protéger les sources d’eau potable, ces décisions doivent se fonder sur les meilleures données scientifiques possibles et être prises en consultation avec la collectivité.

For some communities, it would be the first time they would be able to identify potential threats to their own drinking water systems and develop plans to address them.

For others, it would be a continuation of the work they have already begun.

Up until now, any community that wanted to take a preventive approach was essentially working in isolation.  By looking at the entire shared watershed, we’re ensuring that information gets shared, planning is aligned, and threats are dealt with before they become serious problems.

We recognize the good work that’s already been done by many municipalities and conservation authorities.  Each plan should be built on the progress that’s already been made at the local level.

The magnitude of what’s being accomplished here 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.

To effectively protect our supplies of 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 across Ontario, conservation authorities and municipalities are using leading-edge research and technology to build comprehensive maps of our surface and groundwater resources.

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

There will be implementation costs — we know this.  We can’t predict what they will be for each community, because every region has its own characteristics and challenges.  This is actually one of the great strengths of the Clean Water Act. Instead of trying to design one central model that forces pegs into holes, we’re listening to the communities themselves to tell us what it will take to implement. 

Local planning teams will need to look at their findings, the technical studies and the risk assessments for each source protection planning area, along with each vulnerable area that’s been defined by the scientific research and technical data. 

While it is impossible to anticipate exactly what the implementation costs will be for every community right now, we have two excellent examples of what can be accomplished.

Waterloo Region and Oxford County were early advocates of source protection planning and are now implementing plans they’ve developed to protect their drinking water sources.  These costs have been quite manageable and moderate.  Costs to homeowners in these communities have ranged from approximately 75 cents a month per household in Waterloo County to around $1.50 a month in Oxford County.

We know there may be some hardship cases.  That’s why we’re considering a safety-net approach that will address each specific hardship situation on a case-by-case basis.

We welcome further discussion with all our stakeholders once this becomes clearer and communities have considered the balance between who can contribute to source protection and who benefits at the local level.

Since we first brought forward this legislation, I have had the opportunity to visit many communities around the province.  I’ve spoken with people about the CWA and heard their views about how we can best protect our drinking water.
I’ve seen the excellent local efforts firsthand.  And whether I was speaking with the Mayor of North Bay, or the councillors of Essex County, or farm groups in Waterloo, or conservation authority staff in Belleville, the message I heard was consistent.

People everywhere agree that water protection must be seen as a shared responsibility and the most effective way to protect local water is through local involvement.

We have heard from Ontario’s First Nations that they must have access to safe sources of drinking water.  Where First Nation communities wish to participate in the process, we are considering amendments to the legislation that would ensure First Nation drinking water systems can be protected under Bill 43.

We have also heard a number of good suggestions from the Honourable Members of the Legislature during the debate following second reading.

This feedback is useful as we consider amendments that would help make this bill better. 

One of the amendments we’re considering would let a local community have the option of negotiating risk management plans to address significant drinking water threats.  Instead of permits, we intend to create risk management tools. This comes directly from advice we received during consultations and should address many of the questions we heard.

We will introduce changes that will require officials and inspectors to have a specified set of qualifications, including training in bio-security, and the appropriate health and safety protocols, in order to be appointed to their jobs.

These are a few ideas that we have developed in response to stakeholder suggestions that will make this important bill even better.

Many of our efforts and investments up to now have focused on groundwater. The Clean Water Act will also benefit the millions of Ontarians — including people in our largest cities and most developed industrial areas — who draw their water from the Great Lakes.

The implementation of source protection plans within watersheds that drain into the Great Lakes will help protect the Great Lakes, which supply 70 per cent of Ontario’s population with their drinking water.

Our government is doing a lot to protect the Great Lakes, supporting conservation measures, and sustaining and protecting our valuable water resources. The recent Great Lakes Charter Annex agreement strengthens the protection of the Great Lakes by banning diversions and promoting conservation on both sides of the border.

The Clean Water Act would add to this by letting us set water quality or quantity targets for the source protection areas that feed the Great Lakes.  It’s a fundamental part of the bigger picture on protecting our water from contamination and depletion.

We believe locally-driven, developed and delivered source protection plans are the best way to protect our community drinking water sources in the long term.

I look forward to hearing from all our municipal partners as we move forward with Bill 43.  Let’s take this opportunity to work together as stewards of our environment and protectors of our valuable water resources.

I want to thank everyone who has prepared submissions and taken the time to appear.  I look forward to hearing your good ideas.  

Thank you.

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