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(BY HUGO)

On 29 November 2010, royal assent was given to the Ontario Water Opportunities and Water Conservation Act.

The purpose of the Act is: 1) to foster innovative water, wastewater and stormwater technologies, services and practices in the private and public sectors; 2) to create opportunities for economic development and clean-technology jobs in Ontario; 3) to conserve and sustain water resources for present and future generations.

The Act establishes the Water Technology Acceleration Project corporation to: 1) assist Ontario’s water and wastewater sectors by increasing their capacity to develop, test, demonstrate and commercialize innovative technologies and services for the treatment and management of water and wastewater; 2) assist Ontario’s water and wastewater sectors by increasing their capacity to expand their business opportunities nationally and internationally; 3) provide a forum for governments, the private sector and academic institutions to exchange information and ideas on how to make Ontario a leading jurisdiction in the development and commercialization of innovative technologies and services for the treatment and management of waterand wastewater.

Finally, the Act also: 1) requires that certain municipalities prepare, approve and submit municipal water sustainability plans for municipal water services, municipal wastewater services and municipal stormwater services under their jurisdiction; 2) authorises the making of regulations requiring public agencies including municipalities and ministries to prepare water conservation plans in order to achieve water conservation targets.

Two interesting indications on the direction of the development aimed at in the Act:

- The preamble states that «Ontario has already shown leadership by banning bulk transfers of water out of Ontario’s water basins and in safeguarding public water supplies from source to tap. A new way of thinking about conserving our water resources is needed in Ontario, one that builds on the critical linkages between economic prosperity and long-term environmental sustainability.»

- Subsection 1(2) states that «For greater certainty, the purposes of this Act do not include the privatization of publicly owned water, wastewater and stormwater services.»

This gives a good indication that Ontario intends to develop its water sector through high added value initiatives that have strong inter-sectoral traction effects: high tech, research and development and capacity building through education rather than primary extraction and profit funnelling to shareholders. Sounds nice.

A complete description of the Act is provided here by the Ontario Environmental Registry.