An environmental lawyer called on Tuesday for New Brunswick to be the first Canadian province to enshrine into law the right to clean water, while a forestry executive warned against regulations that would hurt the economy.
Richelle Martin, one of three lawyers at East Coast Environmental Law, told nearly a dozen legislators Tuesday the lack of such a law can result in unequal access to the precious resource.
“This protection of the right to clean water will recognize the importance of water for human health and well-being,” Martin told a legislature committee in Fredericton that is considering ways to update the Clean Water Act.
Martin says now is the time to legislate “enforceable rights to clean water.”
A federal law — the Canadian Environmental Protection Act — enshrines the general right to a healthy environment, Martin said in response to questions about other jurisdictions. Ontario, Quebec and each of the territories have similar frameworks, she added.
However, she said there is no law in Canada that specifically guarantees the right to clean water. “A lot of people are surprised when they learn that we don’t actually have a right to clean water. And so this is an opportunity to protect that right that is so vital,” Martin told reporters.
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The Fredericton-based lawyer said the province should also create formal ways the government can co-operate with Indigenous communities on freshwater-related issues.
Natural Resources Minister John Herron was not immediately available for comment following the morning meeting.
Later at committee, representatives of forestry giant J.D. Irving cautioned lawmakers against making changes to the Clean Water Act that could negatively impact the provincial economy. “The bones of it are good — the foundation of the act and the regulations, it’s very strong,” said the company’s chief forester Jason Killam.
But Jason Limongelli, the company’s woodlands vice-president, warned committee members that Canada’s forestry industry is losing global competitiveness because of “homegrown” policies.
“Despite all the rhetoric around forest fires, tariffs, duties, the Canadian dollar markets, the decline is primarily driven by domestic policy and systemic failures rather than market forces,” Limongelli said.
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With the forestry industry representing about eight per cent of New Brunswick’s GDP, he said the committee should avoid making any decisions that could restrict its growth or productivity.
Meanwhile, J.D. Irving’s three representatives commented on the government’s goal to increase the percentage of protected land in New Brunswick to 15 per cent from 10 per cent. They said the 15 per cent goal should include the mandatory 30-metre buffer zones around wetlands that are protected from development.
The company was criticized by environmentalists earlier this year when it proposed conserving forests near several municipalities in exchange for the ability to log more than 30,000 hectares of protected areas. On Feb. 5 the natural resources minister said the expansion of protected land would be done through the addition of new territory, not by “weakening existing protections.”
The Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick kicked off Tuesday’s hearing by asking the government to launch an expert working group to consider ways to protect the province’s water supply. “Municipalities need to be at any sort of table where this type of subject is being discussed,” said Brittany Merrifield, president of the Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick, which has 60 members.
The committee will hear from physicians, an environmentalist group and representatives of a First Nation on Thursday morning. Next week, three more groups will present to lawmakers.
I knew this was all about the natives wanting free water.
Everyone has the right to pay for clean water. Most Canadians pay the municipality a monthly fee. Natives do not. Those on their own wells, pay for the power to pipe it, and any filtration required.
Time to quit this nonsense about rights to water. We already have rights to clean water.
Why does the province need to co-operate with natives? They need to co-operate with us.