Some farmers and fishers see the Manitoba government’s water legislation as a potential hindrance rather than a help.
Representatives of Keystone Agricultural Producers and Lake Winnipeg’s commercial fishers told the Manitoba Farm Writers and Broadcasters Association that the presence of many penalties and the absence of regulations makes them worried about the Water Protection Act.
“What I was hoping for … was a real spirit of co-operation. Minister (Steve) Ashton talked about it. It’s not in here,” said fisher Bruce Benson, tapping his copy of the act that may become law in early December.
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“If this spirit of co-operation is ever to be achieved, this enforcement hammer has to be removed.”
Farmer Ian Wishart of KAP said there are too few encouragements and too many threats in the legislation.
“The only way to get a change in thinking on a broad basis is to do it with incentives. You can’t regulate that.”
Wishart and Benson both applauded water stewardship minister Steve Ashton’s speech to the farm writers, in which he said the government is not targeting farmers or any other group in Manitoba with the legislation.
The two primary producers said they shared with Ashton a desire to protect Manitoba’s water quality, which both the fishery and farming rely upon.
But they said the present legislation is too vague and threatening.
“I was disappointed and made a little fearful when I read this act,” said Benson.
The penalties for a first offence of breaking water protection regulations are a fine of up to $50,000 and six months in jail for an individual, and a fine of up to $500,000 for a corporation.
Wishart said farmers are worried about being targeted because it has happened before.
“We’re pretty easy to make a target,” said Wishart.
“We’re a small percentage of the population, usually pretty quiet out there on the landscape, and we’re often forgotten as the land managers we are.”
Farmers don’t want nutrients to flow off their land into rivers because “we have to buy them. Nutrients cost us money. We’re not going to waste it. We’re on pretty tight margins right now.”
He said the American government has done a better job of giving farmers incentive programs to encourage environmental management.
In Canada, there is more of an incentive to drain land than retain existing wetlands.
Benson said well-intentioned legislation that does not spell out regulations or which emphasizes enforcement could have a bad effect, even if it is not meant to.
“Personalities can easily come into play,” said Benson. “A person could get a conservation officer who for one reason or another takes a dislike to him … and under this act makes his life very, very miserable.”
Benson worries that powerful, influential polluters will be treated more leniently than small producers.
“Will it be the small farmer who, while they may be creating a problem of some sort, is nowhere near the transgressor like the city of Winnipeg?” said Benson.
KAP hopes that some amendments can be made to the legislation before it becomes law.
“They have identified some issues but they haven’t come up with the right set of solutions,” said Wishart.
