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Environmentalists are trying to ensure a vociferous landowners’ group doesn’t derail a new provincial law aimed at preventing another Walkerton-style drinking water tragedy.
The proposed Clean Water Act — the subject of legislature hearings this week — isn’t perfect, but “it’s a big step forward from what we’ve had,” says Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence, one of 16 groups that will officially endorse the new law today.
“What needs to be done is to put meat on these bones,” Smith said in an interview.
“Protecting our sources of drinking water is pure common sense. This Act … should be as strong as possible.”
The law would give municipalities and conservation authorities the power to identify and, if necessary, protect drinking water sources from pollution, development or measures such as draining wetlands.
They’d be able to act on immediate problems or eliminate threats.
The Liberal government introduced it last December, in part in response to recommendations from the inquiry into the contamination of Walkerton’s drinking water supply six years ago. E. coli bacteria from cattle manure killed seven people and made more than 2,500 ill in the southwestern Ontario town.
The Ontario Landowners Association, which represents some rural property owners, strongly opposes the law, arguing it would trample their rights.
Last week, one of the group’s leaders confronted Premier Dalton McGuinty during a visit near Belleville in eastern Ontario.
The Act is “a draconian piece of legislation that will impose severe hardship on farmers across the province,” Peter Archer told the premier, according to a local news report.
Archer vowed that without major changes in the legislation, rural Liberals would go down to defeat in the next election, just over a year from now.
The government “can’t keep putting land restrictions on us without any compensation. With this act, (it) will have the right to forcible entry on our properties if they believe there is a problem — that’s not a free and just society.”
Smith disagrees: The proposed law is democratic and, if anything, needs to be strengthened, he said in an interview.
The law would require “farmers and other landowners, industry, community groups and the public to come up with workable, effective plans,” to deal with water issues, the environment ministry stated when the Act was introduced.
“For the first time, communities would work together across watersheds in full and public consultation to develop and execute plans to protect their drinking water sources.”
The province has promised $67.5 million for planning and staffing the new measures.
It will go to municipalities and conservation authorities.
But the proposed law contains no commitment to long-term funding, Smith complains.
On top of that, he says, it wouldn’t do enough to protect the Great Lakes — the drinking water source for 80 per cent of Ontario residents.
And, it fails to deal with development issues — for example, requiring that builders install surfaces on parking lots and other areas that allow water to seep into the ground.
The public hearings open today in Toronto and continue during the week in Walkerton, Cornwall, Bath (near Kingston) and Peterborough.
In a brief discussion with Archer, of the landowners’ association, McGuinty indicated the government would stick with the legislation