Ontario Hansard - 01-November2005

WATER QUALITY

Ms. Laurie Scott (Haliburton-Victoria-Brock): My question is for the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of the Environment. The municipality of West Grey and its mayor have been meeting with your staff for several years now regarding the erosion from the Saugeen River that is threatening its sewage lagoon in the village of Neustadt. You've known about this problem and the threat it poses for downstream towns, especially Walkerton. Your response today was to impose an order and tell them to take a hike -- this despite the fact that it was your ministry that took on the responsibility for the geotechnical study.
You are bailing out on this community and you are bailing out on Walkerton, which is threatened by this disaster. Your response to West Grey and Walkerton is to blame someone else rather than to step up and protect this water source and these people. When is this government going to finally take responsibility for protecting drinking water in this province?

Mr. John Wilkinson (Perth-Middlesex): The member should know -- and I thank her for the question -- that the sewage lagoon was downloaded to the municipality by the previous government. Your colleague, who is the member, will tell you the sorry state of affairs that resulted from that transfer. What I can tell the House is that the ministry recognizes, obviously, that the riverbank slope instability at the Neustadt sewage lagoon is a concern.

In response, I agree: The ministry funded a geotechnical assessment of the bank slope instability, which concluded that remedial work should be undertaken. On October 19, the ministry issued a provincial officer's order to the municipality of West Grey, and I just want to explain to you what that says: "The order requires the municipality to submit a plan detailing the steps to be taken to prevent the unstable riverbank from adversely affecting the lagoons at the Neustadt sewage works."

Ms. Scott: This is pretty much the response we expected: shifting the responsibility to the municipality here. This government is two years old, and it's certainly acting like it's only two years old. There are water disasters breaking out all over the province. Your standard answer is to blame someone else. Your minister has been informed of this problem by the municipality. The river is the problem. I'll say that again: The river is the problem. It is moving toward the lagoon. The lagoon hasn't budged. You're responsible for surface water and groundwater protection. When are you going to accept responsibility and help the people of Walkerton prevent an impending disaster, or are you waiting for a phone call from Andy Scott, like you did last week?

Mr. Wilkinson: The sewage lagoon is the municipality's, and I remind the member who gave it to the municipality. The second thing is that there is a provincial officer's order. It is legally binding on the municipality, and we expect every individual, every municipality, every industry in this province to abide by legally binding provincial orders.

Finally, I note that both my minister and the previous minister, meeting with West Grey, have urged them to apply for COMRIF funding -- a COMRIF program that our government put in -- that would provide a third of the money from the feds, a third from the province and a third from the municipalities. Instead, I note that the municipality has not applied. If they did, I'm sure it would be given serious consideration.