Talk:West arm property owners water protection committee/@comment-3064498-20101020231813

This supplied by Shelly Quibell from the meeting in Sturgeon Falls recently....

Dear business associates, Many of you who came out for the Water levels meeting of last Thursday have expressed discontent in some of the attitude by speakers towards the losses incurred by business. Chamber president Yvon Duhaime attempted to focus on developing strategies to deal with low water conditions. The response was primarily around planning for high water conditions. Several of you commented on your concerns being trivialized, but also you commented on not expecting much different. We did post a commentary on our Facebook page regarding this response as being unsatisfactory: the facts laid on the table, the "interpretation" left much to be desired. Floods are painful, and relatively brief in duration. No water, or drought, is an ongoing affair, and should also be treated as a disaster to those affected. I'm not impressed with the cavalier attitude of certain people who have their government paychecks supported by private enterprise. An economy cannot survive on service sector - private sector supports everyone else, and a little respect for the dire circumstances faced by our business people would be in order. The fact that the concerns of area people were pooh poohed and all the discussion on the ministry side revolved around flooding as opposed to drought, and pass ing over the weather conditions of 2010 as "One year does not make a trend" just proves to me how out of touch certain people are. Not once did I hear anyone from the ministry say "we take your concerns seriously". Not once. I did hear how there were no complaints last yea r, and if there is a flood next year we'll be complaining. And that's the rub - all the concerns were typified as "complaints". Business people are so busy trying to get stuff happening, they don't have time to complain, and this attitude on the part of government officials is precisely why most of us could care less what the government officials have to say." In a draft paper produced in July 2009, attached with this email for your perusal, is a document titled "Ontario Low Water Response". In it you will find that the government is, in fact, developing a response to low water conditions, and the government is recognizing factors of low rainfall and drought conditions. While the MNR official last Thursday evening repeated the comment "One year of drought does not make a trend" - it appears that the provincial government, in fact, does recognize the potential: PREFACE In the late 1990s, the Province of Ontario experienced extended periods of low rainfall and high temperatures resulting in some of the lowest surface water levels and driest soils recorded for several decades. A review of these conditions in 1999 led to the development of a response plan to deal with low water conditions. Ontario Low Water Response is intended to ensure provincial preparedness, to assist in co-ordination and to support local response in the event of a drought. Historically, periods of dry weather and low water levels or drought are relatively uncommon in Ontario (about every 10-15 years). However, recent studies on changing weather patterns indicate that low water levels may become more common, potentially compounded by the province’s steadily increasing demands for water and by climate change. Ontario Low Water Response has been in place for almost a decade and low water conditions during that period have tested the plan. These low water conditions, especially the recent low water conditions of 2007, brought new issues to light. Gaps and issues identified by conservation authorities, their water response teams, and water users were examined, and various recommendations and changes were made. Extreme low water conditions experienced in 2007 caused shortages of water in some watersheds, resulting in adverse socio-economic impacts and impacts to the aquatic ecosystem. This Chamber of Commerce hopes the Ministry of Natural Resources will modify it's response to the concerns of area businesses. Feel free to share forward. Merci, Thank-you, Miigwech, Isabel Mosseler, Office Coordinator West Nipissing Chamber of Commerce Chambre de commerce de Nipissing Ouest 200 rue Main St., Unit(é) B Sturgeon Falls, ON  P2B 1P2 T. 705.753.5672  F. 705.580.5672 E/C WNChamber@eastlink.ca