To: The Honourable Doug Ford…

To: The Honourable Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario, the Honourable Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs, and Honourable Rod Phillips, Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks.

Re: Bill 66, the Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act, 2018/ EBR Registry number 013-4293

The Ontario Municipal Water Association (OMWA) supports the actions of our Provincial Government and further supports the concept of Bill 66 in principle, but requests that the Ontario government give consideration to the concerns expressed by our member municipalities and associates about the potential for revoking, reducing or weakening environmental controls in the proposed legislation.

Based on comments and motions passed by our members and other Ontario municipalities, we offer the following for comment on the proposed legislation:

We encourage the government to retain current standards, policies and legislation that protect Natural Heritage Features and Areas, including the Greenbelt, to protect significant wetlands, significant coastal wetlands, fish habitat, significant woodlands significant valley lands, habitat of endangered and threatened species, significant wildlife habitat, and significant areas of natural and scientific interest.

We recommend that Great Lakes Protection Act, 2015 (especially Section 20) be retained and not de-regulated, revoked, compromised, bypassed or weakened.

We suggest the Toxics Reduction Act, 2009 be retained and not de-regulated, revoked, compromised, bypassed or weakened.

In keeping with our mandate around the circle of water we are concerned about maintaining Ontario’s existing drinking water standards to ensure the continued security and safety of our drinking water. We recommend that neither the Clean Water Act, 2006 (particularly Section 39) nor any drinking water source protection plan prepared under the Clean Water Act be de-regulated, revoked, compromised or bypassed.

Respectfully, on behalf of The Ontario Municipal Water Association