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by

The Honourable Laurel Broten
Minister of the Environment

Press Conference (Toronto)
“Announcing Introduction of the Clean Water Act, 2005"

Mariposa Northern Spirit
Toronto, ON
Monday, December 5, 2005 (10:30 a.m.)

(Check against delivery)

Thank you, Peter (Krause, Chairman of Conservation Ontario). And thanks, all of you, for joining me here today on the waters of Lake Ontario.

Not surprisingly, what we’re here to talk about today concerns water, a valued asset of our great province.

I’m sure we all know that the Great Lakes have been important to the people of Ontario long before the Europeans arrived, providing water, food and a route for trade.

Samuel de Champlain was the first European to see this lake in 1615. And he did something that nobody had done before – he began mapping the lake.

The early European explorers started to compile a picture of the vast resources of our great province, our thousands of lakes and rivers, and our supply of groundwater.

Almost 400 years later, that map is nearing completion.

Last week, my colleague David Ramsay and I announced $67 million in grants and funding to help municipalities and conservation authorities with their local water planning efforts.

With our partners we, too, are mapping our water supply and learning more about how it is used and how it is replenished.

As our understanding grows, so does our ability to take action.

Today, I bring you important and exciting news for all of us who concern ourselves with water in this province. I’m happy to tell that that our government is acting on a commitment to a healthy, strong and prosperous Ontario.

In just a few hours, I will tell my colleagues in the Legislature that Ontario is entering a new era of water protection.

Today I will introduce the Clean Water Act – unprecedented legislation that would set above all else the concept of prevention as the first principle in the safeguarding of our province’s drinking water.

Je présenterai la Loi sur l’eau saine – une loi sans précédent qui soulignerait l’importance de la prévention comme premier principe des efforts de protection de l’eau potable de la province.

The Clean Water Act would empower each of us to protect our drinking water sources in watersheds across Ontario, including the Great Lakes.

Before discussing the Act in more detail, I want to talk about why protecting the natural sources of our drinking water is so critical and so timely.

Everyone has a right to clean water – and we all have a responsibility to protect it.

It’s about trust.

We must be able to trust the water that comes out of our taps. We also must be able to trust the source.

What happens when this trust is lost?

None of us can – or should – forget Walkerton. At the same time, those painful memories must serve to ensure that our province meets and exceeds a standard of protection second to none.

We also can’t view Walkerton as an isolated incident.

There was also Beckwith, where a local landfill caused contamination in drinking water. And Kitchener, where drinking water was affected by industrial solvents.

Walkerton, Beckwith, Kitchener: three different sources of contamination and three different situations where the cost to communities ran into the millions of dollars.

These three cases show us that prevention is the key. To protect, we must prevent.

Justice O’Connor called it the first barrier in a multi-barrier system of drinking water protections.

Our government is restoring trust in Ontario’s drinking water by implementing all of Justice O’Connor’s recommendations.

We’ve made excellent progress.

We have taken action to improve how water in Ontario is treated, how water system operators are trained and how water systems are inspected.

We’ve also introduced environmental penalties and a community cleanup fund to guard against industrial spills affecting drinking water.

The Clean Water Act is the most vital link in the chain of safeguards protecting our water from source to tap.

The legislation would require plans to protect drinking water in watersheds.

It would ensure that our approach is based on good science, greater vigilance and more foresight.

La loi exigerait des plans de protection de l’eau potable dans tous les bassins versants.

Elle ferait en sorte que notre démarche soit fondée sur des données scientifiques rigoureuses, une plus grande vigilance et une plus grande prévoyance.

The emphasis is on avoiding future problems rather than dealing with them after-the-fact.

For the first time, we’ll actually know where the sources are, how much is there and what is threatening it.

Here’s how the Clean Water Act would work.

Municipalities, conservation authorities and others would be required to form committees to develop source protection plans.

These source protection committees would consult with municipalities and stakeholders in affected areas and publish their proposed plans.

Proposed plans would be submitted by local source protection authorities to my office along with comments received during consultations.

My office would have the authority to require amendments to plans to ensure that they do the best possible job of addressing threats to water quality.

The Clean Water Act would provide an extra level of protection by requiring local authorities to contact my ministry if they became aware of discharges that could result in an imminent health hazard.

This provision for immediate action could prevent serious contamination of drinking water.

I want to stress that the legislation is not restricted to those parts of Ontario that have a conservation authority. A municipality would be able to enter into an agreement with my office to prepare a source protection plan for areas not under the jurisdiction of a conservation authority.

The Clean Water Act would also empower local authorities to take preventive measures to stop threats to water from developing into real problems. This means not only threats originating within a community, but also outside of its boundaries.

As a member of a community, you have a right to expect that your neighbours aren’t doing things that could affect the safety of your drinking water.

This is critical to our success.

We can’t rely upon separate, uncoordinated plans to protect our water.

Threats to our water do not respect boundaries; neither should our response.

The Clean Water Act is a new and innovative approach that would give the whole community a chance to participate in finding workable, effective solutions.

It would ensure that entire communities work together to find the strategies that best protect the quality and quantity of their drinking water.

The McGuinty government is delivering real, positive change to make Ontario strong, healthy and prosperous.

We are giving local communities a greater ability to protect their own water supplies.

We are giving the public better information about threats to drinking water and how they will be addressed.

Most importantly, we are giving communities the tools to prevent water supplies from becoming contaminated in the first place.

After all, water that starts clean stays clean.

Plus important encore, nous donnons aux collectivités les moyens de prévenir la contamination de leurs réserves d’eau.

Après tout, de l’eau propre qui n’est pas contaminée reste de l’eau propre.

Lake Ontario and the thousands of lakes and rivers across our province are permanently linked to our prosperity. They have supported the First Nations, the European explorers and the growth of our province from a few isolated settlements to one of the greatest places on Earth to live.

If we want that to remain true for the next chapters of our history, we need to act now.

Thank you.

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