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Remarks for

by

The Honourable Laurel Broten
Minister of the Environment

Third Reading of Bill 43 – the Clean Water Act

Ontario Legislature
Toronto, ON
October 18, 2006

(Check against delivery)

 

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is my pleasure to introduce Bill 43, the proposed Clean Water Act, for third reading.

This is a great and long-awaited day for the province of Ontario. Today we consider a piece of legislation that will fundamentally transform the way we protect our greatest natural resource: our water.

As the Honourable Members know, as representatives of the people of this great province, we have the rare and valuable opportunity to truly make a meaningful difference in the lives of Ontarians — not only for today, but for generations to come.

There can be no better opportunity than the one we debate today. Ontario could never have developed into the diverse and thriving, province it is today without a constant supply of clean, safe drinking water. But the quality and the quantity of our water are not boundless. We must manage our water responsibly.

Bill 43 gives us an opportunity to protect Ontario’s environment and also leave an important legacy for our children.

I am very proud to be proposing legislation that has the potential to make such a profound and lasting contribution to Ontario’s environmental well-being, and to the quality of life our people enjoy.

Our government’s vision is of a province where our children can live and play in strong, healthy, vibrant communities … an Ontario that is clean and green … progressive and prosperous.

This is our government’s vision and it is also a vision that is shared by people across our province.

We know that Ontarians, when asked, will clearly state their profound belief that the environment is a top priority, along with health and education.

Notre gouvernement a comme vision une province où les enfants peuvent vivre et grandir dans des collectivités fortes, salubres et dynamiques … un Ontario propre et vert … prospère et en plein essor.

Cette vision du gouvernement est partagée par les citoyens et les citoyennes de la province.

En effet, les Ontariens et les Ontariennes déclarent que l’environnement constitue une priorité pour eux, comme la santé et l’éducation.

Our government is working on many fronts to realize that vision, and many different ministries and agencies are involved.

Unlike some of our predecessors, the McGuinty government understands that Ontarians want effective environmental stewardship from their representatives at Queen’s Park.

We take our stewardship very seriously. We are committed to upholding the trust placed in us to manage environmental issues wisely on behalf of Ontarians.

And as stewards, our role is to ensure that environmental protection is being managed at the most effective and appropriate level.

I want to take a few minutes today to remind the Honourable Members of the purpose of Bill 43, and briefly describe how it is designed to work in communities across the province.

But first, I want to highlight the extensive consultation process we have undertaken for this bill, and how that has helped to make the proposed legislation even stronger, and more effective.

Mr. Speaker, our government consulted with more than 300 groups across the province.

We heard from farmers and municipal leaders, large industry and small businesses, conservation groups and health officials, First Nations and property owners. We listened, and we took action on what we heard.

There is no better example of this than our drinking water stewardship program for rural Ontario. Property owners and small businesses told us that they needed financial help to make changes and implement their plans.

We heard their concerns, and we responded. We built our financial assistance program right into the legislation itself. Initially, $7 million dollars will be available for early action to protect drinking water. What’s more, we have promised farmers and rural business owners that this is only our initial funding; there will be more.

To ensure that future funding is well invested and meets the needs of rural Ontario, I appointed an 11-member Advisory Panel, to be chaired by Al Lauzon, a past chair of the Ontario Rural Council. The panel will provide invaluable advice and expertise in designing the program.

As communities complete their source protection plans, we’ll know better what the costs of implementation are, and how to effectively direct sustainable future funding to address those costs.

Speaker, it is actions like these that prompted Ron Bonnett from the Ontario Federation of Agriculture to say, “the government is clearly listening to the concerns of rural Ontario.”

I should also point out that the program has been very enthusiastically received by the Ontario Farm Animal Council, the Ontario Farm Environmental Coalition, Conservation Ontario, Environmental Defence and the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.

This is just one example that demonstrates the value of Bill 43. This legislation is built around a clear vision, but it is also highly responsive to community needs. We have a Bill that is clear in its goals, but flexible to allow local decision-makers to choose their own best path forward.
It reflects the desires of environmentalists to take a preventive approach, but also listens to the needs of the farmers and property owners who are the stewards of their land.

Speaker, I know that every member of this house supports the underlying principle of Bill 43 – which is that everyone living in Ontario has a fundamental right to safe, clean drinking water. In order to safeguard that right, treatment is simply not enough.

Justice O’Connor pointed out in his report on the Walkerton inquiry that Ontario needs a multi-barrier approach for water protection – a system with numerous built-in safeguards that protect our water from source to tap. Protecting our water begins with preventing its contamination.

We share that vision. Prevention is the fundamental goal of the proposed legislation contained in Bill 43. The passage of this Bill will mean that 12 of Justice O’Connor’s recommendations will be addressed. But more than that, it will start a whole new chapter in the history of how we manage our supply of water.

It all comes down to trust.

People need to be able to trust that their water is safe to drink, and that the water sources they rely on are free from pollution. If this public confidence is lost, the results can be devastating.

With the passage of the Clean Water Act, communities in Ontario will start adopting a watershed-based approach to prevention. Just as importantly, they will not have to develop water protection measures in isolation. They will plan prevention measures across the watersheds they share.

Under Bill 43, communities would form committees to look at the vulnerability of their drinking water sources, and to evaluate existing and potential threats to local supplies. The committees would then develop source protection plans designed to reduce or eliminate those threats.

When these plans are implemented, communities would begin to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the prevention measures. Over time, the plans themselves will be reviewed and updated – to enhance the protection they provide against existing threats, and ensure they respond to new ones.

For some communities, these source protection planning activities they will carry out may well be the first opportunity they have had to identify threats to their water supplies. In other communities, source protection activities may represent the continuation of work that has already been started.

Either way, it is clear that local communities are in the best position to develop and implement effective protection measures to safeguard their water supplies.

Speaker, we heard the concerns of property owners and farmers. They agree that it is important to reduce threats to our drinking water, but they were concerned about what it would mean for their land. We have taken their concerns to heart.

Many threats to drinking water can be managed locally through voluntary efforts.

We have replaced the system of permits and permit officials that was originally proposed with a negotiated risk management approach. This change recognizes the tremendous work that’s already being done on a voluntary basis. And it is similar to the stewardship activities that are now common in a number of regions.

Risk management officials will be required to have appropriate training and qualifications to develop plans with property owners. For instance, an official working with farmers would need to have training in bio-security, health and safety protocols.

Speaker, we also know that source water protection plans need to be based on sound, scientific principles and good research. And they must be developed in consultation with all members of the community.

We have already committed $120 million dollars for planning to help communities and their partners study and assess their watersheds, undertake water budgets and ensure that they get the science right.

A great deal of work is already under way, and the magnitude of what’s being accomplished is truly remarkable. There is no doubt that it is the largest scientific exercise ever undertaken in Ontario to better understand our water resources.

To protect drinking water supplies effectively, we first need to know how much water we have, how much is in reserve, how our water supplies replenish themselves, and how those supplies could be threatened, both now and in the future.

Right now across Ontario, conservation authorities and municipalities are using leading-edge research and technology to build comprehensive maps of their surface and groundwater resources. This research will help them develop local source protection plans for watersheds across the province.

We recognize that there will be implementation costs involved with this work. And because every region of Ontario has its own unique characteristics and challenges, it’s difficult to say precisely what the costs for each community will be.

The need to adapt prevention measures to fit local needs is one of the greatest strengths of the proposed Clean Water Act. Instead of opting for a central model that would impose the same set of protection measures for everyone, we are relying on the communities themselves to tell us what they need to implement their local protection plans.

Local source protection committees represent a broad spectrum of stakeholders, including municipalities, businesses, the health sector and the public. And each committee will need to look carefully at the research findings, technical studies and risk assessments, to come up with prevention measures that deal with the vulnerable areas they’ve identified.

Speaker, it is clear that the cost of implementing these plans will vary somewhat from one community to another across the province. But we already have two excellent examples of what we can expect in this regard.

Waterloo Region and Oxford County were early advocates of source protection planning, and these municipalities are now working to implement the plans they have developed to protect their drinking water sources. I am pleased to report that at this stage, their implementation costs appear to be quite manageable and moderate.

Implementation costs to homeowners in these communities range from about 75 cents per household in Waterloo Region to around $1.50 a month per household in Oxford County.

Mr. Speaker, the government is very much aware that Bill 43 is vital legislation for people and communities throughout this province. As a result, we have taken the time and effort to undertake extensive consultation, to get it right.

We have taken Bill 43 through committee hearings line-by-line. We have also taken it on the road – from a historic town hall in Walkerton to the chambers of Queen’s Park … from a church hall in the Town of Bath to convention centres in Cornwall and Peterborough.

We also had an extensive legislative debate on this bill during second reading. And that debate resulted in a number of very useful suggestions from members on both sides of the house.

Since I introduced this legislation last December, I have visited many communities around the province. I have spoken with people about the proposed Clean Water Act and listened to their views and concerns about the best ways to protect our drinking water.

I’ve seen the excellent local efforts that are under way first-hand. And whether I was speaking with the Mayor of North Bay … or the councilors of Essex County … or farm groups in Waterloo … or conservation authority staff in Belleville … the message I heard was consistent and clear.

People right across Ontario agree that water protection is a shared responsibility – and that the most effective way to protect local water is through local involvement.

Speaker, our government has listened to people’s comments and heard their concerns. And in response to the extensive feedback we received from stakeholders, we have worked hard to amend the Bill to make it even stronger.

We have expressly recognized that incentives, education and outreach programs may be used as source protection tools.

We extended the period for property owners to appeal risk management plans from 15 to 60 days.

We removed the limit of 16 members on source protection committees, so that they can be more flexible and representative of the local watershed community.

We designed the Bill to afford better protection of Great Lakes water quality. As members may know, the Great Lakes supply about 70 per cent of our people with their drinking water, and Bill 43 requires policies to be included in source protection plans to help achieve Great Lakes targets established by the Minister.

Bill 43 also breaks new ground by recognizing First Nations communities and their need to have their water sources protected, by allowing First Nations drinking water systems to be considered as part of the source protection planning process, should the First Nation want to participate.

Over the past several months, my staff has worked with First Nations on ways to protect their drinking water sources under the proposed Clean Water Act – and on how First Nations who want to participate can play an active part developing source water protection plans across their watersheds. Consultation with First Nations regarding their participation in watershed source protection plans will be important as we move forward.

I believe the amendments we have made will result in stronger, more effective legislation. And I want to take this opportunity to thank the hundreds of people who participated in the consultation process – including members of this House – for the high level of interest they have shown in the legislation, and their commitment to protecting Ontario’s drinking water sources for future generations.

Speaker, the passage of Bill 43 will put Ontario in the forefront of drinking water protection across North America. It will help safeguard the quality of our environment, and the health of our people.

Bill 43 represents a key step towards protecting the water resources on which we all rely, and preserving the tremendous quality of life we all enjoy. It’s what the people of this province want. It’s what they deserve.

I would therefore like to invite all members to join me in supporting the speedy passage of this historic and tremendously important legislation.

Thank you, Speaker.

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