Environment committee  Mr. Chairman, largely those would be municipal sources coming out of the Great Lakes. For example, the city of London draws its water from Lake Huron.

Environment committee  They would have had to seek a permit.

Environment committee  Mr. Chair, Mr. Bitran's comments reference a provincial policy statement. That policy statement governs control of land use in the province and includes provisions to protect significant wetlands. Our sister ministry, the Ministry of Natural Resources, has a wetland classificati

Environment committee  I think I've indicated that the agreements we have in place with our neighbouring jurisdictions plus Ontario law itself would prevent the movement of water out of the basin into what has typically been southern jurisdictions that are seeking water.

Environment committee  It's going to be subject to public review, I believe, under the terms of the charter, and debate and probably intervention potentially through the courts, depending on the decisions that are made. Each of the parties to that agreement have the ability to challenge decisions made

Environment committee  I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. I'm not familiar with that level of detail. Perhaps Mr. Richardson may be.

Environment committee  Mr. Chair, from a water quality perspective, my colleague Mr. Richardson is a former colleague from the ministry. Ontario has specific laws in place that restrict the taking of water, both from the Great Lakes and obviously from groundwater sources. We have a Great Lakes charter

Environment committee  It's a non-binding agreement among the parties. In terms of Ontario's system—and the question was asked earlier, Mr. Chair, about the type of regulatory system we have in place—we have a fairly robust what's called the permit to take water program dating back to the 1960s, I be

Environment committee  That's for any water taking in Ontario above 50,000 litres a day.

Environment committee  Yes.

Environment committee  That's Ontario's law, Mr. Chair.

Environment committee  It restricts the movement of water outside of the Great Lakes basin and sets out requirements for movement of water between basins of each of the Great Lakes.

Environment committee  Mr. Chair, I guess it started with the Safe Drinking Water Act, which the government of the day committed to putting in place. It focused on a complete overhaul of regulatory.... It put strong regulations in place for the treatment of drinking water and the licensing of operators

Environment committee  We have worked with the federal government on pilot projects within Ontario for demonstrated innovative water technologies on reserve. That was a pilot program we worked closely with the federal government on in the past couple of years. It's recognized that each province has it

Environment committee  I'm sorry, I don't have those in front of me. I believe the program is still in play in terms of working those pilots out.