Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to take part in this debate on water quality. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency both play a crucial role in ensuring that Canadians have a safe and clean drinking water supply.
Protecting water against agricultural runoff is a challenge that our government is taking very seriously. Most of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's initiatives in this area focus on prevention, that is on ways to prevent problems from arising.
However, as many Canadians know, municipalities and provinces are mainly responsible for providing drinking water to Canadian families.
Local governments must first find suitable water sources to meet present and future needs of the community without endangering the environment. Then they must treat the water to eliminate any trace of impurities or contaminants. Finally, municipalities must build and maintain a system to supply water to the consumers.
The last stage, and not the least, consists in building treatment and evacuation systems to make sure that wastewaters do not harm the environment. In short, it is a complex process in which the margin of error is very small.
While water supply systems are being developed and are in service, municipalities and provinces often need scientific data on the farming and agrifood sector. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has undertaken a research project on nutrients in fertilizers and manure, to reduce the risk of water contamination by these nutrients.
This task is not easy as Canada is a huge country with many different ecosystems. Moreover, every community has specific needs and challenges.
Another example of scientific data supplied by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is the development of a series of agricultural and environmental indicators, several of which are linked to water quality.
These indicators, which track environmental trends over the years in various regions of Canada, make it possible to identify areas and resources still at risk. Moreover, they serve as a starting point to focus action on areas where risks are the highest.
For example, when provinces and municipalities are considering using some lands for agricultural purposes, the indicators and background data help scientists determine if farming might involve the risk of nutrients or other substances contaminating water. The indicators help in developing measures to evaluate and reduce as much as possible the risk of water contamination due to farming.
As everybody knows, the semi-arid prairies present unique problems with regard to water supply. Ensuring supply in these areas is often a bit more difficult.
However, I am proud to mention that the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration supports the main part of the research and technology transfer the Prairie communities need to manage their water supply. The administration is currently conducting numerous projects relating to water supply, conservation and protection of water resources and improvement of water quality.
For instance, the rural water development program provides technological support for projects to develop wells and improve water quality. The administration also works together with its rural clients and local producer groups to promote better practices to protect surface water and ground water.
In the area of research, scientists with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada are looking into other means of protecting drinking water against contaminants. Numerous Canadians are now aware of the dangers associated with bacteria like E. coli.
As part of the fight against E. coli and other pathogenic agents, researchers at the Lethbridge research centre have discovered and tested several promising solutions which could help to check and eliminate those organisms at all points in the food chain, from the farm to the consumer. The Canadian beef industry, our partner in research, plays a major role by financing this initiative in the hope of finding a solution.
I am pleased to inform hon. members that producers are playing an active role in the protection of the environment. Many of them took the trouble to prepare and implement an environmental plan for their operations. For some time now, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has been providing them with financial assistance to do so.
In co-operation with Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, farmers have developed many other initiatives, so that Canadians may enjoy a cleaner environment and cleaner drinking water. Those initiatives are financed through the Canadian adaptation and rural development fund and implemented with the help of the provinces.
The environmental stewardship initiative in agriculture, which is part of the Canadian adaptation and rural development fund, will make $10 million available to farmers over the next three years to help them launch projects dealing with water quality improvement, soil decontamination, wildlife habitat and biodiversity conservation in agricultural areas and the use of farming practices that will help prevent climate change.
Another activity funded by the Canadian adaptation and rural development fund is the environmental stewardship initiative in livestock production. It has a $1.3 million budget for research and technology transfer to assist producers in adopting environmentally friendly practices. This initiative will also help to create an environmental certification system for the hog industry.
These are some of the measures taken by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to help protect Canada's water supply.
Members will have to agree that we have accomplished a lot with the provinces and the producers, our partners. However, we will continue to do more and to work relentlessly because we take our responsibilities seriously. Canadian farmers and the public expect no less from us.