Canada Federal Election Survey - 2006

Water Questions

	YES	NO	Comment
NDP	—	—	The NDP is committed to introducing a Clean Water Act to establish national standards and protection for drinking water, including those jurisdictions under federal control. Water quality regulations under this law would include standards for solid waste disposal, dump management, mine site operations and rehabilitation, forestry and farming practices, and pesticide use. We are completely in support of federal action to ban the export of bulk water and want to recognize the Government of Manitoba’s leadership on this issue. We have repeatedly called for the federal government to be more involved in international water issues and to finally step up to the plate and ensure mitigating efforts for the flow of water from Devil's Lake to Manitoba. And we support the efforts of Ed Schreyer and the Lake Winnipeg Stewardship Board and their call for action for Lake Winnipeg.
Conservative
Green Party
Liberal		—	January 7, 2006, we announced the Liberal party's National Ecosystem Initiative and Revitalization Plan, which builds on the significant progress the Liberal government has made toward protecting the integrity of Lake Winnipeg. Our plan builds on federal, provincial, and municipal shared-cost programs such as the Great Lakes Action Plan and the St. Lawrence Action Plan, by further restoring these degraded and threatened areas at a cost of $500 million over 10 years. Specifically, the National Ecosystem Initiative and Revitalization Plan will address areas that have been contaminated by past actions - such as industrial toxins in the water and sediment, lost habitat, contaminated fish and wildlife. This funding will help us keep pace with the consequences of growth and development that can seriously threaten water ecosystems such as population growth, agricultural use, or other emerging challenges such as non-point source contamination from the use of pharmaceuticals. Canada's lakes and waterways are national treasures. And Lake Winnipeg in many ways represents the jewel in Canada's crown. However, Lake Winnipeg is also one of Canada's sickest lakes, due to toxic algae blooms fed from nutrients originating from agricultural fertilizers, and elevated levels of Escherichia coli bacteria at major Lake Winnipeg beaches. The deterioration of the quality of Lake Winnipeg is putting at risk communities that rely on the lake for drinking water and important economic activity such as the fishery, power generation and tourism. Lake Winnipeg supports an extremely valuable ($25 million annually) commercial fishery and marketing operations; recreational interests on the lake contribute $100 million annually to the economy; and, Manitoba Hydro, which uses the lake as a reservoir, generates electricity exports valued at $500 million per year. Other issues facing Lake Winnipeg include: aquatic invasive species, chemical contaminants, climate change and overfishing. To meet these challenges, the National Ecosystem Initiative and Revitalization Plan will provide $120 million over 10 years to restore the health of Lake Winnipeg. In part, this plan is our response to the Province of Manitoba's request for federal assistance to establish a multi-partner Lake Winnipeg Watershed Plan. This plan will: restore the health of Lake Winnipeg through targeted science and cooperative action to reduce harmful nutrients and pollutants; enhance partnerships with those jurisdictions that comprise the Lake Winnipeg watershed - Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Ontario and the bordering US states; and, implement the recommendations of the recent report "Restoring the Health of Lake Winnipeg: Canada's Sixth Great Lake" co-authored by Terry Duguid (including funding science, cooperative planning and action in watersheds, and implementing a formal agreement with the province on cleaning up the lake). While we have made significant progress in many areas, we know more needs to be done to deal with key threats to our foremost ecosystems. And this Liberal government has demonstrated we are here to do our part. On May 27, 2005, the Liberal government announced a $1.1 million annual investment to enhance the scope of water quality monitoring efforts on the Red River and the south basin of Lake Winnipeg. This will provide an ongoing assessment of the biological health of the Lake Winnipeg watershed. Today's announcement is one more example of how we are making progress and making a difference in Canada's cities and communities and on improving Canada's ecological integrity and environment. It build on such things as: the $40 million in additional funding we allocated to Great Lakes Action Plan in Budget 2005; The November 24, 2005 announcement of $550,000 to repair seven commercial fishing harbours that were damaged during an early October storm; the $5 billion we are investing for sustainable municipal infrastructure that includes water and waste water projects through the gas tax revenues provided via the New Deal, with Manitoba receiving $167.3 million; the $1.2 billion we have delivered in water and waste water projects since 2000; and, the $12 billion we have deliver in infrastructure funding since 1993.
Bloc

	YES	NO	Comment
NDP	—	—	See #14 response
Conservative
Green Party
Liberal	—	—	See #14 response
Bloc

	YES	NO	Comment
NDP	—	—	See #14 response
Conservative
Green Party
Liberal	—	—	See #14 response
Bloc

	YES	NO	Comment
NDP	—	—	See #14 response
Conservative
Green Party
Liberal
Bloc

	YES	NO	Comment
NDP	—	—	See #14 response
Conservative
Green Party
Liberal	—	—	During 1999-2000, a significant concerted effort took place to launch the compendium on Canadian Environmental Quality Guidelines under the auspices of the CCME. Guidelines are developed for all media (water, sediment, soil and tissue), resource uses (irrigation and livestock watering) and land uses (agricultural, residential, commercial and industrial). On Saturday January 7, 2006, we introduced a five year plan for a National Ecosystem Initiative and Revitalization Plan that covers the world’s largest freshwater ecosystem – the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River basin – as well as other key waterways under stress: the Lake Winnipeg watershed, the Okanagan watershed, Mackenzie River basin, and Columbia River basin. The Plan will include actions to identify and restore the significantly threatened ecosystems of our waterways. The Liberal government launched the Environmental Indicators program, and supported it with $ 15 million in funding in Budget 2004. The aim is to strengthen the data collection for water, air and climate change-related indicators and make the reporting more transparent. Monitoring changes in the environment is essential for assessing the impact of toxins and the effectiveness of measures meant to minimize environmental damage and potential threats to human life. Monitoring remains an important component of the scientific work supporting the implementation of CEPA 1999 on information is made readily available on Environment Canada’ website.
Bloc

	YES	NO	Comment
NDP	—	—	See #14 response
Conservative
Green Party
Liberal			Yes, absolutely. The federal government has been working with all provinces to ensure they adhere to the spirit of our amendments to the International Boundary Waters Treaty with the U.S. The Liberal government brought in the amendments in 2002 to specifically discourage and disallow the diversion of water, inter-basin transfers and other forms of bulk water removal and export. Canada does not export water in bulk via interbasin-transfers, pipelines, or by ocean tanker. Water is exported in small consumer containers and it is also shared between some border communities for domestic water supply purposes. Bulk water removals can individually and cumulatively cause undesirable environmental impacts.
Bloc

	YES	NO	Comment
NDP	—	—	See #14 response
Conservative
Green Party
Liberal	—	—	The IJC, which is an independent bi-national commission, came to similar conclusions in its final report cited above, after exhaustive public hearings and submissions that included governmental and independent experts representing every point of view. The principle that governments have full sovereignty over the management of water in its natural state was also reconfirmed by the Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, in a formal, written submission to the IJC, where he indicated that under customary international law, non-navigational rights to a watercourse—including the right to control or limit extraction—belong solely to the country or countries where the watercourse lies. We are also closely monitoring the latest joint water quality study following the Devils Lake water diversion. It was closed on November 4th for the winter and we expect ongoing discussions with respect to this matter. We have examined all legal options available to Canada and, should my colleagues, Minister of Foreign Affairs Canada and Minister of Environment Canada, advise me that discussions are no longer productive, the Liberal government is prepared to launch a legal action. However, our objective remains to deal with our differences through discussions.
Bloc