WHEREAS the municipality was issued a Public Health Order under s. 26 of the Drinking Water Protection Act to treat the Villages finished water supply to a specific standard, and to achieve that standard, the Village of Harrison Hot Springs must construct a water treatment facility, possibly requiring a loan authorization bylaw and approval of the electorate; AND WHEREAS if the order had been issued under s. 25 of the Act, public approval would not be required: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that any borrowing made necessary by an order issued by a ministry official or health authority be exempt from a public approval process.
Ministry of Community, Sport Cultural Development Currently, the only exemption from obtaining electoral approval for necessary water works projects is provided through the Municipal Liabilities Regulation Community Charter under sections 4 8. The intent of the regulations is to eliminate the requirement for elector approval when there is an immediate public health hazard. Under the Drinking Water Protection Act DWPA, an order issued under s. 25 is directed towards an existing drinking water health hazard or a significant risk of an imminent drinking water health hazard. An order issued under s. 26 reflects contraventions of the DWPA and does not necessarily reflect an immediate public health hazard. The Ministry has been working with the Ministry of Health and the Health Authorities through the Drinking Water Leadership Council to further identify this issue and ensure that all parties understand the purpose of the public assentloan authorization process, the role of the Liabilities Regulations and the impact orders under the DWPA have on local governments. Part of this work is to ensure that orders issued by Drinking Water Officers Health Authorities appropriately reflect the respective public health issue and further support the affected local government to implement the order appropriately. The Ministry continues to be interested in further discussions on how the development of a Master Water Management Plan could be utilized, analogous to the development of a Liquid Waste Management Plan, in developing a long term plan with public participationconsultation that could potentially lead to an exemption from obtaining electoral approval for the works identified in the plan. These discussions would also need to include the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Health.