"Imagine, not having committed a crime or done anything wrong other than being inside one of the lines that you (government) plan to have drawn on the map, and receiving notice … that could cost you who knows how much. There’s really no money in rural Ontario for any of this."

— Judy Dirksen, Ontario Veal Association

"Our concern is that the proposed bill appears to shift the burden of proof to the agricultural landowner. Under Bill 43, the process puts the onus on the agricultural landowner to satisfy the municipal permit official that the normal legal farm practice will not cause harm."

— David Murray, Dairy Farmers of Ontario

Bill 43 places "a disproportionate burden on farmers and this burden could well grow with time."

— David Murray, Dairy Farmers of Ontario

Takes away my property rights

Bill 43 "takes significant property rights. A permit official can impose any condition limiting a landowner’s use of land, can designate my land, enter my land, inspect my land, fine me, I guess, if I’m not following protocol, and I could easily go to jail."

— George Spence, Walkerton, farmer and appraiser still suffering from effects of water contamination at Walkerton

All for naught

"We view the current legislation as being overly punative and not a positive improvement over existing legislation."

— Norma Winters, Dairy Farmers of Ontario

Bill attacks farmers

"Bill 43 sees farmers as an enemy of water protection issues, especially in the permits, inspection and enforcement sections. As a result, the bill fails to recognize the real, positive role that farmlands and farm people have in resource conservation."

— Gordon Garlough, Dundas County Federation of Agriculture

Regulatory instruments should be only used as a last resort, "when compliance is absolutely necessary and other options have been unsuccessful."

— Conservation Ontario

Funding?

"A small surcharge for each property (added to taxes) would likely fund the entire program (inspection of septic systems) in any municipality." Grants should be provided for upgrades.

— Public Health inspectors of Ontario, advocating grants for upgrading.

"Long-term sustainable funding is critical to the success of this act," especially to municipalities and farmers.

— Conservation Ontario

What water are we protecting?

"We need to define just what kind of water we are protecting —and to adopt a risk management versus a risk elimination approach."

— Ontario Agri-Business Association

We need bio-security

"Most of our members have health and safety policies and procedures…So there must be some caution undertaken either by the authority or MOE …to ensure they’re (inspectors) following protocols."

— Ontario Agri-Business Association

Another type of tax?

"We have tremendous attrition and restructuring going on within our industry. We are technically over capacity in some regards. So we have extremely thin margins, highly competitive businesses and any extra burden that comes into the equation is going to be …a financial burden."

— Ontario Agri-Business Association, who argues this bill could be another form of taxation without representation: You become forced to buy a licence because you sit on the bank of a river.

Overly cautious officials

"Rather than creating a predictable and scientifically sound framework for managing legitimate risks, the proposed Clean Water Act establishes an ill-defined regulatory process that will likely result in overly risk-adverse" municipal officials applying the precautionary principle to place an unfair burden on landowner."