Farmers say Bill 81 is vague and could be very costly

Ken Johnston

Thursday morning 27 farmers gathered at the Rainy River Legion to listen to five presenters voice concerns about Bill 81, The Nutrient Management Act.
Many of the presenters voiced the same concerns. Kim Cornell, representing the Rainy River Cattlemen’s Association, as well as Bill Murphy of the Lestor Coop of Thunder Bay and Sietske VanZwol of the Christian Farmers Federation all felt the new legislation was too vague with many grey areas. Both Cornell and VanZwol called for a lengthier implementation schedule.
George Garland, the Director of Resource Management at the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food said that they are looking at lengthening the implementation times, but noted that Bill 81 does not allow for any grand fathering. “Eventually everyone will have to comply.”
The act will govern the use of nutrients on lands in Ontario. Nutrients such as manure, that are in either liquid or solid form.
Another major concern amongst the presenters was the cost of making the necessary changes on their farms to be in compliance. Rick Boersema of Stratton said that he estimates it will run him between $100,000 and $200,000 over the next two years. “Many farmers feel they can not afford it.”
Cornell said that RRCA feels that rather than do the costly upgrades, “Many producers will choose to leave the industry.”
The common request from the presenters was that the government come up with a program to pay for the costs of the changes the farmers will have to make.
Presenter Stefan Szeder also called for financial compensation for the productivity that will be lost by the province forcing producers not to farm within a certain distance of waterways.
Waterway definitions also concerned the presenters. They are worried that ditches that flow only during spring runoff or after heavy storms would be classified as waterways and that they would have to give up land to create buffers as laid out in the act. “A roadside ditch is not a waterway,” said presenter Bernie Zimmerman.
Two presenters felt the regulations have been written for areas where there is intensive farming operations and that they are not needed in NWO. “We measure production in acres to animal rather than animals to acre,” said Cornell.
Boersema also felt that the rules need to be placed on all polluters and that farmers are being unfairly singled out since the Walkerton water tragedy. “What about the salt on roads by MTO or the local homeowner using fertilizers on their lawns?”
Garland said that Bill 81 deals only with agricultural operations, hence he could not comment on that point.
Concerns also arose over who would enforce the new act. Garland said that it would be the Ministry of the Environment. Keith Mclaughlin of MoE, said that farmers basically were exempt from their realm of enforcement prior to Bill 81. He expressed his discernment at the fact that the regs. were being dumped on them to enforce. “Isn’t this great. These people come and present this to us and pass it onto me.”
Mclaughlin said that the way MoE deals with polluters basically gives the polluter a license to pollute to a certain level. If they exceed that level they pay fines automatically. “I think it will almost be impossible to convict when a guy’s cows go in a creek and they have been doing it for 100 years.”