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Conservation
Bureau
rhe Farm al arena...
PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2006.
Conservation authorities protect source water
By Shawn Loughlin
Citizen staff
The water flowing through
the area is about to clean up
its act says new legislation
recently passed in Ontario
called the Clean Water Act.
The Clean Water Act (Bill
43), has been passed by the
provincial government and
locally the Ausable Bayfield
and Maitland Valley
Conservation Authorities
have joined in a Source Water
Protection Partnership. This
will ensure that the water
coming through rural areas
will be cleaner than it ever has
been.
"Source water protection is
Continued from page 4
sectors.
A primary reason farmers
need these programs is
stability and predictability.
Farming is a capital intensive
industry requiring a lot of
financial planning and skills
to deal with the uncertainties
presented by weather and
global markets. There are
programs that help with the
weather-related risks, but our
governments have failed to
adjust their thinking and
responses to world market
situations.
Now, with federal coffers
overflowing, it would be an
ideal time for our government
to step forward and show its
support for the industry. An
investment in agriculture is a
a group of activities where we
try to keep water clean in the
first place, so it's a broad
watershed-based approach to
looking at keeping our ground
and surface water clean,"
Cathie Brown, project
manager of the Source Water
Protection initiative said.
"The Clean Water Act is a
specific application of the
studies and science that go
into source water protection."
In September, Premier
Dalton McGuinty said at the
International Plowing Match
that rural areas deserve clean
and safe drinking water and
that they should have a say in
protecting that.
In 2007/2008. $7 million
direct investment in rural
communities
Our farmers have the
knowledge and land resources
to compete with the rest of the
world, but when our
governments back away from
matching the subsidies paid
by the governments of our
major competitors, it puts our
farmers' futures in jeopardy —
we can't compete with the
treasuries of the U.S. and
E.U.
OFA, working with the
Canadian Federation of
Agriculture and partner farm
organizations, have carried
out major lobby efforts in the
past to improve the
understanding of elected and
staff government people of
Canadian agriculture's
will be available as the seed
funding for the initiative. $2
million will go to education of
the legislation and the other
$5 million will go to work on
the ground.
"In terms of planning, the
province has assured us that
they will pay for all of the
planning costs, in terms of the
implementation, there is a
great debate going on over
how to make that happen,"
Brown said.
Brown also said that a
stewardship fund has been set
up to keep this initiative going
and she hopes that when the
budget is announced in the
spring, that money will be
allocated to that fund.
situation. We have seen some
success, but our governments
have come up short of what's
ultimately needed.
As the urgency for
solutions to the income crisis
grows, we are preparing for
another campaign to take
details of Canadian
agriculture's economic
potential and economic needs
to our governments.
Because the economic
problems experienced by
farmers have a direct impact
on the economic health of
rural communities, our
request for support will be
spread far and wide. We hope
our government will react as
quickly to agriculture's needs
as it did to the income trust
threat.
Brown cites that this is not
an Ontario problem and that it
is something that is a
major concern all over the
world.
"We have degraded our
water supply, so this will be a
long-term thing in Ontario.
We are not the first and only
group of people to think about
this," Brown said, naming off
many initiatives in the United
States and around the world.
"It is a notion whose time
has come."
Although Brown says that
the major problem with the
water in the area is the quality,
not the quantity, the amount
of water we have is not
something that is going to be
taken lightly either. Ontario
wastes a lot of water she says,
and that is something that can
be kept under control quite
easily.
"While the planet is blue
and full of water, only four
per cent of that water is fresh
water and much of that water
Continued from page 1
enforcement-oriented.
Warden Rob Morley said
the government reaction is
similar to the situation
following the contaminated
water crisis in Walkerton.
And if the situation is bad
for the county, he said, it is
worse for non-profit private
is locked up in clouds or ice
or in plant life. That leaves
about one per cent of water
that's available for drinking,
and the Great Lakes basin has
the majority of that," Brown
said.
"We are spoiled in terms of
our access to fresh water and
we very much take it for
granted"
Although wanting clean
drinking water is nothing new,
many of these initiatives have
come out of the incidents at
Walkerton in 2000 and the
ensuing inquiry. Brown
insists that Walkerton had a
lot to do with the initiative,
but that it is not the sole
reason for it.
"It's not just Walkerton that
we need to look back to. We
need to think about the boil
water orders and the sewage
bypasses and the number of
spills. There's a lot of smaller
things going on that continue
to go on," Brown said.
"We need to be really
homes such as Bluewater Rest
Home in Zurich. It's already
hard to get good board
members for such
organizations and this will
only be a deterrent, he
said.
Goderich councillor Deb
Shewfelt wondered if the
county should have a
coonscieneious of this and not
just say this is all happening
because of Walkerton."
The McGtrinty government
has set out a basic fraMework
for their approach to this
issue. The project will a)
identify and assess risks, b)
develop a source protection
plan, c) carry out the plan and
d) stay vigilant. The
framework reiterates that this
is a long-term plan for the
health and safety of Ontario.
"I think that it's perceived
that this will go on from now
until the end. There are many
other types of processes that
are intended to be permanent
and long-term and I think
more and more that the
capacity of the earth is
fragile," Brown said."
"My personal hope is that
our water is in better stead
after this project than it was
before and I'm hoping that we
can, as a community, find
ways to work together to meet
this goal."
representative at the hearings
to protect its interests.
Springall said the nursing
home association is
representing home owners at
the hearings. "We're now in a
letter writing campaign. I
don't know that anything
would be gained by sitting in
at the hearings."
• • Farmers seek stability
Warden says reaction
similar to Walkerton