I do not agree with the…

I do not agree with the proposal to streamline permissions for large scale water takings by anyone. Water is a common resource that we must all share and to make this work we must all have oversight over how it is used.
The Clean Water Act and the Ontario Water Resources Act were designed to manage and protect our shared water resources, ecosystems, and health. Unless they are enforced they will not accomplish these goals. The development industry is not generally known in Ontario for responsible care of the environment and the public good. As a result, public and governmental regulatory oversight are needed to keep our water healthy, abundant and safe.
• Key regulatory tools that currently protect our water include:
o Requirement of permits – including application and approval processes – for extracting more than 50,000 litres of groundwater per day;
o Public consultation that allows local communities to have a say in decisions that may impact them; and
o Requirements for industry to notify local conservation authorities of water-taking practices in order to facilitate collaborative management of water resources and municipal infrastructure, including consideration of drought and flood risks and conditions.
• Ontario’s proposal to remove of the limit for groundwater-taking and to allow up to 379,000 litres of groundwater-taking per day without permit, while restricting public consultation and removing the requirement to notify conservation authorities, puts the ecosystem, human health, and municipal infrastructure at risk.
In particular, I see a major problem with the proposed regulatory amendment to O. Reg. 387/04 under the Ontario Water Resources Act. The fact that Ontario is proposing to make residential foundation drainage systems exempt from requiring a PTTW for water taking of up to 379,000 litres of water per day implies that building homes on wetlands and other sites with high groundwater levels will be allowed. This is doubly egregious, since the removal of this groundwater will rob water resources from neighbouring communities and habitat, and the homeowners who live in these homes will be under constant threat of flooding when the electricity fails as is inevitable under our current system.