She told the February meeting of the directors of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) in Toronto that Ontario would rise to "its rightful position as a world leader in protecting drinking water and its sources." The Ontario Liberals will go to the wall for the environment.

But she didn’t say who was going to pay. Schmoozing to insinuate complicity with the OFA in the plan, she said "We’ll only have that if we work together."

In the question period that followed, vice president Gerri Kamenz brought a dose of reality to the minister’s vision. He said that the economic impact of both source water protection and nutrient management legislation will cripple a farm community already expecting record low incomes. "What we lack today is really a commitment from the premier to recognize the full costs, " he told the minister.

The former Tory government had the George Morris Centre do a cost analysis but refused to make the report available. The Liberals are just as coy.

Kamenz told the minister that if there were not "a significant commitment to funding come July 1, 2005, you are inadvertently going to make criminals out of a lot of Ontario farmers."

Lanark director John Vanderspank was more direct than Kamenz. He said: "We will not allow you to kill our farms the way you have killed our sawmills."

Dombrowsky’s insensitivity was stunning. She said: "I guess I can only comment that I will never apologize for protecting the environment."