Conservative Water Strategy Murky

The Conservatives promised a clean water strategy in March when the government tabled its budget, and earmarked money for several projects, including $11 million to clean up heavily polluted spots in the Great Lakes Basin. In September, Baird announced the government would regulate the dumping of sewage into waterways, and earlier this month Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn unveiled $42.5 million dollars towards improving the health of Canada's oceans under the "National Water Strategy."

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Rick Findlay, director of Pollution Probe's water program, says the government needs to articulate a more comprehensive vision of how it aims to protects Canada's watersheds - essentially the basins that feed major bodies of water. In particular, Findlay says Ottawa should be making a major effort to clean up the Great Lakes.

"It shouldn't be the same old agenda of cleaning up the dirty spots and making sure the sewage treatment plants are flushing correctly," Findlay said.

Environmentalists are also hoping to see the Tories take action on the Alberta tar sands, oil extraction projects that use copious amounts of fresh water and leave behind heavily polluted pools that go on to contaminate local waterways.

Said Findlay: "Both from a water quality and quantity point of view, it's simply unsustainable the path that they're on."

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/10/17/4584006-cp.html