No plans to revise drain laws says ag ministry

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

by SUSAN MANN

Ontario’s agriculture ministry doesn’t have any plans to amend the Drainage Act despite a recommendation to do so in this year’s Environmental Commissioner’s annual report.

Agriculture ministry spokesperson Sarah Petrevan says all drainage projects are reviewed to ensure compliance with federal and provincial environmental laws before they’re approved. In addition, Ontario is always reviewing its laws to ensure they’re current.

But there aren’t plans currently to amend the Drainage Act, she says, noting they haven’t ruled out a future review of the Act if a situation arose that warranted it.

Commissioner Gord Miller recommended the ministry amend the Act and its policies to ensure provincially significant wetlands are protected from being drained. Seventy-two per cent of Southern Ontario’s pre-settlement wetlands have been lost through agricultural drainage, development, encroachment, land clearing and filling, it says in the report, released Sept. 22.

Petrevan says the ministry doesn’t support the draining of provincially significant wetlands. It’s the natural resources ministry that’s responsible for designating wetlands as provincially significant.

The agriculture ministry takes recommendations from the Environmental Commissioner very seriously and it has to respond to them but not necessarily adopt them, she explains. “They (the recommendations) are not necessarily prescriptive.”

Spokespeople for the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and National Farmers Union (Ontario branch) say they’re still wading through the report. The Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario couldn’t be reached for comment.

Federation president Bette Jean Crews says from what she’s read so far there’s no balance “with society’s need to eat” in the commissioner’s report on environmental initiatives. The report gives the impression current mitigation measures aren’t sufficient, she notes.

Also, the report doesn’t acknowledge that a lot a work has been accomplished by farm organizations, the agriculture and natural resources ministries and others to ensure farm businesses have a minimal impact on the environment.

About drainage, Crews says it’s needed so some lands, particularly in Western Ontario, can even be farmed. “It was the farmers who dug those drains in the first place.”

The Federation established a task team to study drainage matters across Ontario. “What we find is the regulations conflict between the (federal) Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the conservation authorities and the (Ontario) Ministry of Natural Resources,” Crews says, adding the provincial environment ministry and the Environmental Commissioner are also involved.

The Commissioner also recommended the agriculture and environment ministries develop guidelines for biochar production and use in Ontario.

Petrevan says the agriculture ministry is involved in some biochar research. Biochar is a complex substance that can be used to sequester carbon and as a soil amendment. The ministry is looking at developing significantly more Ontario-based data before it brings in a biochar policy.

Crews says the science isn’t complete. “Our concern is that they (the agriculture ministry) would put a lot of research dollars into this when there are conflicting studies already done.”

Crews says the studies are conflicting as to the effectiveness of biochar.

Sean McGivern, National Farmers Union Ontario coordinator, says the ministry should definitely put some resources into studying biochar. “I think we’re running out of finite resource supplies” and products made from renewable resources need to seriously be studied. BF