February 24, 2004
Remarks to the Infrastructure Symposium of the Ontario Concrete Pipe Association
by David Caplan, Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal
Check Against Delivery
Good morning ladies and gentlemen. It’s great to be here this morning and I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you this morning.
We are a new government. I am a new Minister, at the head of a Ministry that has never existed before.
In a very real sense, I am going to be working with groups like yours to define what it is I am going to do, and how I am going to do it.
But the fact that Premier McGuinty has seen fit to create a Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal should tell you something about this government’s commitment to positive change.
There is a new way of doing business at Queen’s Park.
My ministry is a symbol of that new style, and that new sense of purpose.
Being committed to change means acknowledging in advance that change is required…that the way things have always been done is no longer good enough.
And while this province remains the greatest place in the world to live and work, the fact is that we need to improve the way things have always been done…or it won’t be the greatest place for very much longer.
I am talking very specifically about Ontario’s infrastructure.
It has, to put it bluntly, been in decline for a decade.
The previous government not only ignored the problem…it exacerbated it with a combination of downloading and neglect.
We are going to reverse that decline.
That is why this Ministry has been created. And that is why I am here today talking to you.
We are committed to finding creative, practical solutions to the challenges our province faces…
And to implementing those solutions in ways that use the experience and knowledge of the people who are the experts, like the members of this association.
So I want to begin this morning by discussing some of the things this new ministry is going to do in the course of the next few years.
And then I hope there will be an opportunity for me to listen to the people in this roomthe people who can help us find the best ways to get things done.
First and foremost, we absolutely must invest in this province’s infrastructure.
We must make that investment…to rebuild this province, to ensure our economic prosperity, and maintain our quality of life.
Doing nothing is not an option. Doing nothing is doing damage. There has been too much of that and it ends now.
These are our priorities:
We must get our cities moving again.
Gridlock is choking our streets, slowing our economy, and keeping families apart for too many hours out of every working day.
We’re going to create a seamless transportation network across the GTA.
We’re going to allocate two cents per litre of the provincial gasoline tax to municipalities to be used for public transit.
Every study of urban gridlock that I have ever read says better public transit is the answer. We’re going to provide that.
We’re going to manage good development, so we discourage sprawl and preserve green spaces. Families shouldn’t have to drive two hours just to enjoy a walk outdoors.
We’re going to create 20-thousand units of affordable housing. I believe that one of the ways we should define ourselves as a society is by how well we provide our citizens with those basic needs we all have, and surely housing is near the top of that list.
As is health care, we’re going to unclog our emergency rooms by opening up an additional 16-hundred hospital beds.
These are things that on one level or other need building. They are part of the infrastructure of this province, and they have been ignored for too long.
And finally, we are going to implement each and every recommendation of the Walkerton Report, so that every person in Ontario has clean, safe drinking water, and effective wastewater treatment.
I’m going to spend a little time on water today.
We need to improve the way we provide water and wastewater service in Ontario.
That fits very well into the theme of this conference. I’m talking to experts, and at the end of the day I’m hoping to hear from you as well.
One of the themes of Dalton McGuinty’s government is working together to bring about positive change, and I can tell you I’m a big believer in that approach.
This is Ontario, in the year 2003. Pure water and good sanitation are the fundamental requirements of a civilized society.
When they fail, we are outraged.
As the Minister responsible for renewing public infrastructure in Ontario, one of my top priorities is to make sure they don’t fail.
The issue is a simple matter of protecting public health, and the public interest.
How do we ensure that everyone in Ontario has clean water to drink?
How do we ensure that we dispose of the wastewater in a way that protects public health and does no harm to our environment?
How do we make sure the system is sustainable?
You know this subject better than anyone, and I want to hear what you have to say.
From an engineering perspective, the answers are well known. You know how to build pipelines so they will last for half a century or more.
But from a public policy perspective, the issues are not so clear-cut.
The business of getting clean water into homes and factories and carrying wastewater safely away is far more complex and much more difficult than most people know.
We need to develop mechanisms that will give municipalities enough revenue ¾ on a continuing basis ¾ to cover the full cost of capital infrastructure and operating expenses, including maintenance and repair work.
Almost everybody agrees that we don’t charge enough for water.
If we are going to enjoy wise stewardship of our water resources we have to find a way to recover all the costs of providing water and sewage services.
This includes the cost of maintaining and replacing the infrastructure we use.
We get hints of how urgent that kind of maintenance is all the time.
Municipalities across the province continually suffer breaks and leaks in watermains and sewers.
In one municipal system, a water main burst and released about 40 million litres of water — about as much as goes over Niagara Falls in 17 seconds. Then a few weeks later, it broke again.
The damage can and will run to millions of dollars on a province-wide basis.
It is not unusual for municipal systems to depend on pipes whose average age is more than 75 years.
When they break, public health is put at risk, and the cost of repairs is horrendous.
We have to fix the system, both for economic reasons and for the protection of the public.
Ontario has legislation ¾ the Sustainable Water and Sewage Systems Act ¾ that requires municipalities to adopt full cost recovery for their water systems.
Few ¾ if any ¾ municipalities do that now.
My Ministry is leading the development of a long-term strategy for water and wastewater investment that will help municipalities deal with this issue.
As a basic guiding principle, we support full-cost recovery. We are, however, adamant that the most vulnerable in our society will be protected from having extra costs passed on to them, and we will protect smaller municipalities that lack the capacity to achieve full cost recovery.
This is by no means a simple issue. The fact is that recovering the full cost for water has become like motherhood and apple pie.
But embracing the idea is one thing; facing the reality of higher prices is
Water pricing sparks heated debate among the public, and the organizations and institutions that have a stake in this issue.
But as I have said, there will have to be a resolution to that debate. A new revenue and cost-sharing model will have to be developed.
In short, the province’s water and wastewater systems will be reformed, upgraded and improved.
I said at the beginning of my remarks that there is a new way of doing business at Queen’s Park.
Part of that new approach requires that we manage the financial crisis we inherited from the previous government.
5.6 billion dollars is a huge deficit, and it makes for a huge challenge.
But Premier McGuinty has said, and I’m repeating it now…we will met that challenge. We have no intention of faltering in our commitment to public health and public safety.
We will plan our investments carefully to make the best use of the taxpayer’s money.
We will seek advice and counsel from the people with expert knowledge of the issues…people like you.
And finally, most important, now and always…we will act to protect the public interest, for the long-term benefit of all of the people of this province.
The eyes of this government are on the next generation, not the next election.
In closing I’d like to repeat that I want to hear from you about these and any other issues you might consider important. I can promise you that as we go forward, you will be hearing from me.
Other Ministers talk euphemistically about building a province. As Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal, when I talk about building I mean it literally.
I want to build a great province. It’s something my government is committed to doing. And we want to do it with your help.
Thank you.
