By Terry Meagher

The Renfrew County National Farmers Union has come flat out against the Ontario Clean Water Act. The bill in its present form should be regarded as work in progress, said president Dave Mackay.

For a solid week in August, farm groups told the provincial standing committee on Bill 43, the Clean Water Act, that the bill is ambiguous, confusing and draconian.

Said Chris Kennedy, representing the Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency: "I see nothing about financial incentives and I see an awful lot about regulatory enforcement. So, to me that is a big stick and a complete lack of carrots."

The bill passed first reading December 5, 2005 but during second reading, May 18, was referred to committee.

Gordon Garlough, presenter for the Dundas Federation of Agriculture, echoed the thoughts of many farm groups when he said: "Bill 43 sees farmers as an enemy of water protection issues."

He went on to say that "The bill fails to recognize the real, positive role that farmlands and farm people have in water resource conservation."

But there is no meeting of the minds between farmers and the urban environmental mindset. After Kim Sytsma presented the Ontario Cattlemen’s point that normal agricultural diligence standards would get the job done, parliamentary committee member Peter Tabuns compared pollution from farms to the Richmond landfill. He said he was sure that Waste Management, the company that wants to expand the landfill, would say we can prevent any leakage, even though there is a plume already existing.

Part of the problem for farm groups is combating propaganda and fuzzy thinking. In her presentation, Sytsma said the government was confusing terms. The words "precautionary principle," meaning hold the mustard because you think it might spoil the taste of the hotdog, is seductively attractive as a term in the proposed bill. But it was illogical to use the term, she said. "It might seem that the alternative might be recklessness," illustrating the suggestiveness of those words. But excessive precaution can also occur, she pointed out, and could lead to paralysis of action resulting from unjustified fear.

Ron Bonnett, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) warned the committee not to have legislation that is too broad. The legislation has to focus on municipal drinking water sources, he said. Otherwise, farming could be almost legislated out of existence.

Compensation has to be laid out clearly. He said the OFA is proposing a stewardship fund, to ensure the people responsible for providing the protection, or the filtration system for clean water in the province are compensated.