Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News
The Newsletter of the Great Lakes
Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund
Volume 11, Number 2 • Spring 2003
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Ontario Update
By: Linda Pim
Provincial Election Has Aquatic Habitat
Activists Concerned
It is clear that Ontario is headed into a
provincial election, likely by or before
the end of May. The actual
election date is the decision of Premier Ernie Eves. After the
election writ is dropped, the 28-day campaign period will
allow both the political parties and civil society groups to
make their voices heard on urgent matters of public policy.
The current government’s record on aquatic habitat
protection has been somewhat underwhelming.
Whether you are reading this during the election
campaign or after it, the issues of greatest concern remain
the same. The most likely election outcomes are a majority
Progressive Conservative (PC) government under Ernie Eves
(as exists at the time of writing), a minority PC
government, or a minority Liberal Party government. If there
is a minority Liberal Party government, it would
likely be the New Democratic Party that would hold the
balance of power. The Green Party is making inroads on the
Ontario political scene, although it has yet to hold a seat in
the Ontario Legislature.
Ontario environmental activists working to protect aquatic
habitats are concerned that the next government, of
whatever political stripe, take action in the following areas:
- Fully and expeditiously implement all the
recommendations of the Walkerton Inquiry, which
examined the failure of provincial and municipal
authorities to prevent drinking water contamination by a
virulent E. coli strain that killed seven people and
sickened over 2,000 others in the town of Walkerton, in
the Lake Huron watershed, during May 2000. The inquiry
report called for watershed-based planning as the first
line of defense for protection of drinking water sources.
- Develop policy and legislation for tighter control by the
Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MOE) over the
extraction of both surface water and groundwater for
water-bottling and other commercial purposes. Two
recent cases have shown that current controls are sorely
wanting – Artemesia Waters Ltd.’s plans to suck dry a
Grey County wetland (in the Lake Huron watershed) in
the process of pumping groundwater for water bottling;
and the recent success of OMYA Canada Inc. in
persuading MOE Minister Chris Stockwell to allow the
company to massively increase their bulk water-taking
from the Tay River at Perth (in the Ottawa River
watershed) to combine it with calcium carbonate and
sell the resulting slurry for use in toothpaste and
other products.
- Provide stronger protection for wetlands – both those
confirmed as Provincially Significant Wetlands by the
Ministry of Natural Resources and those identified as
regionally or locally significant in municipal official plans
– through the Provincial Policy Statement (PPS) under the
Planning Act.Wetlands on the Canadian Shield should be
accorded the same protections as those that are south
and east of the Shield (a current, artificial distinction in
the PPS).
- Embrace the full suite of legislation, policies and
incentives that are needed to create a smart, nature-first
future for Ontario. The needed measures have been
documented in the Federation of Ontario Naturalists’
book A Smart Future for Ontario: How to Protect Nature
and Curb Urban Sprawl in Your Community (see Ontario
Update, GLAHNews, Early Spring 2003), available on-line
a www.ontarionature.org (click on Urban Sprawl /
Smart Growth).