Q-2 - Environment Quality Act

Section 31.101 Disposition versions

2011-09-01

31.101. The Minister may implement water conservation and efficiency programs that are based on the objectives set by the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Water Resources Regional Body in order to

(1)  improve the waters and water-dependent natural resources of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin;

(2)  protect and restore the hydrologic and ecosystem integrity of that basin;

(3)  retain the quantity of surface water and groundwater;

(4)  ensure sustainable use of the waters; and

(5)  promote the efficient use of water.

The objects of these programs are to include

(1)  promoting the sustainable management of all withdrawals from the Basin, particularly new or increased withdrawals described in section 31.95 that involve an average quantity or consumptive use of 379,000 litres or more per day or a quantity or consumptive use determined by regulation of the Government;

(2)  ensuring the enforcement of sections 31.91 to 31.95, which set conditions applicable to water transfers out of the Basin and new or increased withdrawals from the Basin; and

(3)  making sure that measures prescribed or recommended for all Basin water users to ensure water conservation and efficiency are regularly reviewed and updated to adjust to the actual and potential impacts of the cumulative effects of past, present and reasonably foreseeable future withdrawals and consumptive uses and of climate change on the Basin ecosystem.

The Minister shall annually assess the results achieved under the programs implemented under this section. On 1 September 2012 and every five years after that, the Minister shall send the Regional Body a report describing the programs and their results.

2009, c. 21, s. 19.