Canada: Ontario vegetable growers want legislative change on water controls
Duc, a Niagara-on-the-Lake grape and tender fruit grower, says some farmers are being told to get environmental compliance approvals issued by the provincial Environment Ministry to handle their waste water and rainwater that runs off their farms. However, the approvals have a hefty price tag with some farmers facing costs of $25,000 to get them.
“Some of these are small farms,” he adds.
Duc says even with waste and rainwater being regulated under the Nutrient Management Act, the environment ministry would “still have to police it but we’d be working with OMAFRA (the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs).”
The association started working last year to get waste and rainwater regulated under the Act and “it is moving along,” says Duc, who was elected chair at the association’s annual meeting Jan. 14-16 in Niagara Falls. “I think we just have to give it the push to get it over the edge.”
Source: betterfarming.com
