What are the costs associated with source protection planning?
Neither local taxpayers nor industry will bear the burden of source water protection planning costs the province has committed to providing the resources to fund remaining planning costs, including consultation, groundwater studies and technical assessments. The costs of source water protection have been minimized due to the substantial work that the province and other stakeholders have taken in the past to protect drinking water sources. Source water protection plans will be built on this work and many communities are well on the way to completing components of plans (i.e. groundwater protection strategies), thereby reducing future costs. To date, the province has invested heavily in basic studies, investing $20 million in recent years for groundwater and technical assessment studies (97 studies funded). On November 29, 2005, the Minister of the Environment and the Minister of Natural Resources announced funding of $67.5M over the next five years for source protection planning activit
