Ensuring fairness while protecting drinking water supplies.
South Bruce Council recently sent out a petition to all municipalities under the Saugeen, Grey-Sauble, and Northern Bruce Peninsula Source Water Protection Committee.
The petition calls on member municipalities to ensure fair compensation for local farmers and landowners that may be affected by any new proposed regulations regarding drinking water wells.
While they still have ways to go before establishing rules and regulations, Councillor Les Nichols says there are those that will be immediately impacted once the rules are implemented.
Nichols — who serves as a municipal representative on the committee — says the affected farmers and landowners maybe picking up a large amount of the costs and feels it should be the Ontario taxpayer that should pay for it.
Both he and the Source Water Protection Committee wants to deal with it now rather than later.
The petition also calls for the word “compensation” to be the correct term to describe any form of financial package.
The Ontario government has suggested substituting “compensation” with “financial assistance.”
But Nichols feels “financial assistance” is too vague a term because as it doesn’t define how much of the cost is being covered.
He says the committee is standing behind using the term “compensation.”
