Hutterite speakers take aim at Bill 21

SOURIS — Members of Hutterite colonies in the province took aim Thursday at the NDP government’s proposed changes to drinking water legislation during a public meeting in Souris.

The meeting was hosted by Progressive Conservative MLA Colleen Robbins (Spruce Woods) to hear from rural residents about their concerns over Bill 21, which the government says will improve oversight on wells and other water systems in the province.

“There’s not enough clarity, but I feel that the overreach that this bill will bring is not clearly defined, and it could have a lot of negative consequences,” attendee Gilbert Hofer, a member of Green Acres colony near Wawanesa, said after the meeting, which drew about 20 people.

Bill 21 would allow public health officers to designate the type of water source based on its intended use, water quality and use duration rather than solely the number of connections it has.

The PCs held up the legislation in the spring to consult with the public. The NDP, however, hold a majority in the legislature and PC approval isn’t necessary for the bill to pass.

Community wells traditionally haven’t needed chlorination, and attendees feared legislation could change that.

Speakers said they are already testing their well water and it’s coming back with a negative result, so they shouldn’t have to chlorinate it.

“If you don’t have bacteria, I mean, why do the treatment?” one attendee said.

Another speaker cited “the whole burden of putting in the system, the monitoring, and all the rest.”

PC agriculture critic Konrad Narth, who spoke to attendees for most of the meeting, said he wants to see carve-outs in the legislation for certain water users, like Hutterite colonies and agricultural bulk fill sites.

Hutterite colonies, he said, are being singled out in the legislation as the majority-urban NDP MLAs don’t understand the water systems in rural Manitoba.

“Water is used and distributed in a unique way to what maybe members are accustomed to in Winnipeg,” Narth, the MLA for La Vérendrye, told the Sun after the meeting.

“This is a good opportunity to further organize those groups that will be negatively impacted if this legislation goes through.”

Narth said it doesn’t make sense to include Hutterite colonies in the legislation.

“This is a matter of making the government understand the complexity of water access across the province,” he said during the meeting.

“We feel that this is counterproductive legislation, basically only enforcing and supporting government overreach.”

Environment and Climate Change Minister Mike Moyes, in an interview with the Sun later in the day, said there is a lot of “fearmongering” going on about the bill, and the legislation is in fact the “opposite” of how Narth is characterizing it.

Narth, he said, is “putting misinformation out there.”

“What we’re actually doing is we’re right-sizing the amount of oversight on different systems based on risk in collaboration with public health. And so it actually gets rid of a lot of red tape for a lot of different locations,” Moyes, the MLA for Riel, said.

The legislation will allow for more flexibility around the designation of sites as semi-public water systems.

“Rather than putting a very small system as a public system and all of the oversight that goes into that, it allows them to put in a more flexible oversight program by designating it as a semi-public,” Moyes said. “So, it’s actually helpful to a lot of these smaller water systems.”

Moyes said the flexibility is important so officials can look at a variety of different factors, instead of just hookups.

“If is it a vulnerable population that’s going to be drinking this water on a daily basis — for example, a hospital, a school, a seniors home, things of that sort — then there needs to be greater oversight,” he said.

A carve-out for Hutterite colonies is “problematic” and wouldn’t keep people safe, he said, adding that carve-outs for agricultural purposes are already in place.

Moyes encouraged residents to reach out to his department if they have concerns over the legislation.

Other people in attendance at Thursday’s meeting weren’t as concerned by the proposed bill.

Souris-Glenwood Coun. Bruce Apperly said he was there to get information for the municipality. He said as a councillor and deputy mayor, he hadn’t heard much concern about the legislation up until Thursday’s event.

Daniel Burns, CEO of Burns Maendel Consulting Engineers, said Hutterite colonies are some of his main clients, and he deals with a lot of drinking water systems.

“I don’t actually feel like the proposal changes a lot from the current legislation and regulations. I think there’s some changes that could be looked at in the long term, but I don’t feel like this bill really is the impact of that,” Burns said.

» alambert@brandonsun.com