What Farmers Need to Know About the Proposed Clean Water Act

Brian Besley, OFEC Steering Committee member and AGCare Chair

Bill 43, the Clean Water Act, was introduced by the McGuinty government on December 5, 2005. The Ontario Farm Environmental Coalition (OFEC) steering committee and agricultural organization staff have been working hard on this issue on behalf of Ontario's farmers and we will strive to communicate any developments to farmers as best we can.

Essentially, the Clean Water Act seeks to direct local communities, organized by major watersheds, to create Source Water Protection Plans by examining and mapping any potential threats to water quality and taking action to reduce or remove these threats. It empowers local authorities, such as municipalities through proposed permit officials, to take preventative measures before a threat to water quality develops.

Farmers are, of course, supportive of the concept of drinking water source protection plans for all watersheds in Ontario. Targeting regulatory standards and funding programs based on risk and linked to a local Source Water Protection Plan could provide a practical and workable framework for making positive drinking water quality improvement progress.

OFEC's analysis of the proposed Clean Water Act is that it lacks appropriate checks and balances; it lacks proper legal, technical, political and fiscal municipal and provincial governance accountability; and in many important and significant ways, contradicts Justice O'Connor's Walkerton Inquiry Recommendations.

OFEC has obtained a legal opinion, which concluded "Bill 43 will have serious consequences for landowners, operating to effectively expropriate lands without any apparent compensation." The proposed Act is likely to lead to conflict between rural municipalities and farmers and could infringe on their ability to exercise normal farm practices.

Consistent with Justice O'Connor's Walkerton Inquiry Recommendation #16 (The provincial government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in collaboration with the Ministry of the Environment, should establish a system of cost-share incentives for water protection projects on farms.), the government must provide compensation to agricultural landowners who are restricted in a material way by source water protection measures. The Walkerton Inquiry Recommendations were crafted to firmly establish. the link between provincial authority to regulate and the provincial responsibility to offer fair and reasonable compensation and funding assistance. OFEC has suggested a mechanism similar to the Manitoba Water Protection Act, which establishes a Stewardship Fund to provide longterm, sustainable funding to assist impacted municipalities and impacted agricultural landowners.

The proposed legislation needs to be changed such that the Ministry of Environment (MOE) is prohibited from approving any Source Water Protection Plans which do not include full details of the cost of implementing the plan.

There needs to be a socio-economic impact assessment of each Plan before it is approved. The full cost of implementing the Source Water Protection Plan includes, at minimum, long-term government administrative cost, farm business risk assessment plan development, farm business on-going administrative cost, farm business ongoing operating cost, farm business capital cost, and the farm business loss of land use cost.

The proposed Clean Water Act includes broad powers for municipal "permit officials" without appropriate technical, political or fiscal accountability. OFEC is categorically opposed to the proposed permit system. Municipal authority to regulate land use to meet the Clean Water Act objectives should be based on co-operative solutions and negotiations with impacted landowners rather than unilateral permit official authority. Rather than a "Permit Official", agricultural Source Water Protection goals could be co-operatively achieved through an "Agricultural Risk Management Official" with the mandate to negotiate solutions and offer both technical and funding assistance.

Our next opportunity to amend Bill 43 is when it goes to the standing committee after second reading, which is planned for the spring session of the legislature. OFEC is advocating broad consultation and is currently working on suggested amendments.

We are committed to working with the MOE to get this legislation right.