Source Protection Committee Roles & Responsibilities

In 2006, the Ontario government passed the Clean Water Act to help protect our municipal drinking water sources, as part of an overall commitment to safeguard human health and the environment.

The legislation sets prevention as its fundamental principle. Keeping the sources of our drinking water free of contamination is smarter, safer and more effective than cleaning up problems after the fact.

A key component of the Clean Water Act was the development of science-based and locally-administered source protection plans that would help protect our drinking water sources now and in the future.  The development of these plans was overseen locally by source protection committees. The Niagara Peninsula Source Protection Committee is one of 19 committees across the province.

The roles and responsibilities of the source protection committee and other key stakeholders and agencies in developing the plan are shown in the attachment below.

Roles and Responsibilities under the Clean Water Act

 

Roles & Responsibilities of the Committee during Implementation of the Plan

The Niagara Peninsula Source Protection Plan was completed and approved by the province in December 2013.  With the approval of the plan, the committee has now focused on tasks that deal with the implementation of the plan.  These tasks include:

  • Reviewing the annual progress report prepared by the Source Protection Authority. The annual report summarizes the progress made by various stakeholders in implementing the policies in the source protection plan; and
  • Overseeing any technical updates to the Assessment Report and Source Protection Plan as may be required.

No matter what phase of the project, there are some responsibilities and obligations that each committee member must adhere to. The following is expected of each committee member:

  • Each new member should make a three year commitment to participate on the committee;
  • Members should regularly attend committee meetings (about two meetings per year during this implementation phase of the program);
  • New members must attend a training and orientation session on source protection;
  • Niagara Peninsula SPC members must reside, own property, rent property, be employed in, operate a business in, or be employed by a municipality that is located within the boundaries of the Niagara Peninsula Source Protection Area;
  • SPC members cannot be a current Conservation Authority Board or staff member;
  • Members must respect confidential information and abide by the process in place to safeguard confidential information;
  • Members must comply with the committee’s code of conduct (which is shown in the link below);
  • Members should act as a liaison by bringing forward common concerns from knowledge and experience of their respective sector to the committee;
  • Members are expected to work together with representatives from other sectors;
  • Each member should provide input and make decisions at the committee table.

As part of their responsibilities, source protection committee members must adhere to the Code of Conduct and Conflict of Interest Policy shown in the attachment below.

Source Protection Committee Member’s Handbook