Thank you, sir.
My name is Jack MacLaren. I own a small farm outside of Renfrew in Ontario. I have run into trouble with the Drainage Act and the Navigable Waters Protection Act.
If you can imagine it, on my farm there's something similar to a bowl—imagine these desks being about 400 to 500 yards long—with a small mud hole in one end into which all the drainage goes, and a ditch that we have dug over to a point where the water filters into the ground. There must be holes in rock or something there.
Last year, without my permission, the beavers moved in. Normally this area goes totally dry. The beavers moved in and dammed this thing up. It flooded my lawn and flooded a large piece of land I was going to plant apple trees on, which I can't do, because apple trees don't like wet feet. In wanting to correct this situation, I phoned a gentleman who owns high hoes. The first thing he asked me was whether I had a permit. I said, “It's totally on my land; I don't need a permit.” He said, “You do. I will be fined...”—I forget the amount of money he would be fined—“and so will you.” So I checked with another one and heard the same thing.
So here I have this flooded land, my lawn flooded, a little piece of creek—not a creek but a ditch—300 feet long, and I can't get it cleaned out because of the Drainage Act and the Navigable Waters Protection Act. I have pictures here, which I can't show you, of a gentleman standing in the water. We took a picture of his feet. The water is over the top of the toes of his rubber boots. But I cannot clean that out.
First, I phoned MNR, and they sent a gentleman down. He told me I had to go to Fisheries and Oceans. Don't forget, this is entirely on my farm, in front of my house. It's probably 400 to 500 yards long. I cannot remove it from my land without.... A Fisheries and Oceans representative came from Prescott. He had no problems with it. I had a problem getting him to send me a letter okaying this. Now I am supposed to go back to MNR in Pembroke, apply for a permit, and get it from them.
This was now coming on fall, and as you all know, where the water seeps into the ground, it disappears. It's in the bowl; it disappears inside that area. When it freezes, the water no longer can get away from there. It's too late by that time for me to get a permit to get the work done. So I am stuck with a little piece of ditch, totally on my property, and I think they're calling it a navigable waterway.
This is the most stupid piece of legislation.... I guess I'm not supposed to use that terminology here, but it is the most stupid piece of legislation I have seen. It's under the Navigable Waters Protection Act. The water that is down past the beaver dam won't come over the toes of your boots, but I still have to go through this. I would like the Drainage Act to be scrapped and the Navigable Waters Protection Act to be scrapped on private land. I'm sure all of you gentlemen don't want to go fishing on my farm in a mudhole in which you would sink out of sight, because there are no fish there.
So I would like this totally scrapped.
Thank you, sir.