Watershed governance or intake governance? Implications of Ontario’s Clean Water Act on collaborative watershed governance in rural areas

Abstract

This research examines the extent to which the Clean Water Act (S.O. 2006, c. 22) (CWA) in Ontario, Canada is an example of collaborative watershed governance, with a focus on rural communities. This research also provides lessons for source water governance in Ontario and elsewhere, while contributing to the evolving collaborative governance theory development from the perspective of water governance. A case study approach was employed that incorporated in depth exploration of 30 key informants’ experiences within the Cataraqui Source Protection Area and the North Bay-Mattawa Source Protection Area. The findings of this study suggest that the source protection planning process under the CWA improved communication, collaboration, transparency, integration, knowledge sharing, and trust amongst watershed actors. However, there are still improvements to be made to make this process a model example of collaborative watershed governance. Communities and individuals within watersheds contributing to source water supplies need to better understand their role in source protection efforts. Factors such as the inflexibility to accommodate local concerns in the legislated planning process, uncertainty regarding funding for implementation efforts in the future, and an absence of public interest, have all negatively impacted the effectiveness of the collaborative governance of source water supplies in rural Ontario. Furthermore, there was a lack of community-level ownership of the source protection plans within the source protection areas that were not impacted by binding policies. There is a need for the source protection process under the CWA to better involve the entire watershed in future source water protection planning efforts.