Thank you.
Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the committee.
On behalf of the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, our 100,000 members, supporters, and subscribers, and our 740 clubs across Ontario, thank you for inviting us here today to talk about elements of Bill C-69 that are critically important to our organization.
Our primary interest in the bill is the Canadian navigable waters act. Although our organization has a very keen interest in the environmental considerations for projects that occur in and around water, our knowledge and experience in Ontario are related mostly to the Fisheries Act and provincial statutes and regulatory processes, such as Ontario's Environmental Assessment Act. Therefore, we will focus our comments today on the angler, hunter, and trapper perspectives on navigation protection.
From the time of the fur trade, and well before for indigenous peoples, navigable waters have been critical for accessing resources in Canada. Water-based navigation remains woven into the cultural fabric and social identity of many indigenous and non-indigenous Canadians. Approximately one-quarter of Canadians fish, hunt, and trap, and they contribute $15.2 billion to the Canadian economy every year. Fishing, hunting, and trapping are very relevant in Canada today, and the right to navigation is important to the Canadians who enjoy those activities.
The idea of a public right to navigation is almost as old as the country itself, with navigation legislation having origins dating back to the late 1800s. Although societal demand for water-based transportation has changed dramatically over time, there remains a demand for safe and accessible navigable waters. To achieve this requires strong legislative oversight by the federal government.
First, we must know what navigability means to Canadians—what are we trying to protect? The most obvious connection to navigability for some Canadians will be lake freighters on the Great Lakes or cabin cruisers on the Rideau Canal or the Trent-Severn Waterway—big waters and big boats.
When our members think about navigability, however, a high volume of traffic is the last thing they want to see. They are more interested in the navigable backwaters of Canada. Small rivers, streams, creeks, marshes, and other smaller watercourses are important gateways to fishing, hunting, and trapping opportunities. The definition of “navigable waters” in the proposed Canadian navigable waters act has been enhanced and now provides more detail, with specific recognition for recreational use. This is a positive amendment that better reflects our idea of navigability.
It is our position that navigation legislation is not intended to be environmental legislation. Are there opportunities for navigation protection to provide a checkpoint to ensure that environmental legislation and regulatory processes are happening as they should? Definitely. The projects occurring in and around water should be considered from both a navigation and an environmental perspective. But if we are relying on this act—past, present, or future forms of it—to be a significant line of defence for environmental protection, then we have to question the effectiveness of our primary environmental statutes, such as the Fisheries Act and the impact assessment act.
From our perspective, protecting navigability is not about adding red tape for proponents or slowing down development. Large-scale proponent-driven projects are already scrutinized under other legislation and often across multiple jurisdictions. These projects should absolutely be subject to navigability legislation, but the regulatory process must be done in conjunction with other federal approval processes to make it as efficient as possible for the proponent's and the agency's benefit. The proposed amendments to have the prohibition apply to major works in any navigable water is a step in the right direction, but more about that later.
We are concerned that regulatory processes tend to focus on these proponent-driven medium- and large-scale projects, for which prohibitions as well as permitting and approval requirements are well established in the development cycle. It is the smaller-scale obstructions that do not have the same proponent-agency relationship, because the responsible party is more likely to be a private landowner who won't be disclosing their intent to erect a fence, a wire, a rope, or other obstruction across a navigable water. In most cases, the individual is unaware that they are breaking the law or even that navigation legislation exists. These obstructions won't be flagged, but they will impede public navigation and create significant safety concerns.
For obstructions—and it is important to differentiate obstructions from works or projects—the presence of a legal deterrent and subsequent government recourse to address contraventions can be as important for protecting navigability as the regulatory and permitting process is for traditional proponent-led projects. We want to prevent obstructions to navigability to the greatest degree possible, because the average Canadian can't and won't fight these issues in the courts. When navigability concerns do arise, Canadians expect and rely on the federal government to protect navigability. For this reason, we are pleased to see that the amended act proposes to prohibit obstructions in any navigable water. In our minds, this is a very important change.
In addition to the legislative measures, navigation protection requires strong education and outreach to increase awareness among Canadians. This should accompany the implementation of the Canadian navigable waters act, particularly as it relates to obstructions that cause serious navigability and public safety concerns.
To maintain safe and accessible waters in Canada, we need strong legislation with clear and comprehensive provisions that outline where, when, and how the government will protect navigation. The following are a few more specific comments on the amended navigation legislation proposed in Bill C-69.
There has been much discussion about the 2009 and 2012 amendments to the navigation legislation. Much of what I have read so far has been negative, but that isn't entirely fair. The limitation of the legislation to a scheduled list of water bodies was considered a major setback for navigation protection; however, the 2009 amendments established a foundation for classifying different works or projects. This has been maintained in the Canadian navigable waters act and expanded with the inclusion of major works.
We believe a classification system that enables prioritization of projects being reviewed for navigation protection is necessary. First, there are differences in the level of scrutiny required for different types of projects. Think of the differences between a dock and a dam. In a perfect world, we would want all works, regardless of type, to be assessed and authorized by a regulatory agency. This may have been possible under the broad nature of the Navigable Waters Protection Act prior to 2009. However, we must acknowledge the fiscal realities of the navigation protection program and the fact that the administrative burden in reviewing all minor works may not be worth the added value to navigation protection. A regulatory triage is now commonly used by agencies to implement regulatory programs.
As always, the devil is in the details, and the amended legislation only tells part of the story. We can likely make relatively safe assumptions about what will be defined as minor works because of the existing minor works order under the Navigation Protection Act, but we do not know what types of projects will be included as major works. To achieve a complete and effective major works order, the minister will need to establish a transparent public consultation process. Only when we know what types of projects are classified as minor and major will we know what is left in between, in other words, what projects won't be subject to navigation protection in unlisted, or 99%, of Canadian waters.
We are still not convinced that special classification of waters in a schedule is necessary or appropriate. If the government can get the classes of works right, then classes of waters shouldn't be necessary.
I hope we have been able to illustrate a different perspective on the proposals to amend navigation legislation and have offered the committee value-added feedback that will contribute to your study and ultimately bring meaningful change to the bill and its implementation.
Thank you again, Madam Chair and members of the committee, for the invitation and for your attention today. I look forward to the questions.