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OTTAWA — Environment Minister Jim Prentice has announced new regulations to govern the way municipalities treat wastewater and sewage.
“This is a big step forward for our country,” Prentice said. “The objective here has been to give Canada up-to-date modern standards in terms of what we discharge into the natural environment.”
The regulations will impact 3,700 municipal wastewater treatment facilities in 10 provinces and the Yukon, about 1,000 of which will need to be upgraded at an estimated cost of $10 billion to $13 billion.
The high-risk group of cities must complete their upgrades by 2020, the medium risk group by 2030 and the low risk group by 2040.
Municipalities that fail to obey the new regulations will be fined up to $300,000 for a first offence and up to $1 million for a second offence.
There’s no new money, which means cities must fund upgrades the way they normally pay for infrastructure or they could try to tap into what’s left of the infrastructure stimulus money.
The regulations are out for public consultation, which Prentice said should take about six months to complete before being adopted.
“It’s a positive step because Canada possesses so much fresh water,” Liberal environment critic David McGuinty said. “We have to start treating our natural world, including our fresh water, waterways and our oceans as more than just unlimited sources of capital to draw down on.”