Ontario Hansard - 03-April2007

Ms. Lisa MacLeod (Nepean-Carleton): Water quality in rural Ottawa is rapidly reaching crisis levels and there is no support from the McGuinty Liberals to improve this crumbling infrastructure.

One day after the McGuinty budget was tabled, I met with disillusioned residents from my riding in Lynwood Trailer Park with Ottawa city Councillor Doug Thompson, just minutes from Ottawa South, Dalton McGuinty's constituency. What they told me and what they showed me was utterly disturbing. The water sample would turn your stomach. It was brown; the size of the particles suspended in the water was beyond belief. They described health problems as a result of the poor water quality. They described how they can't even wash their clothes because the water stains the fabric. They showed me pictures of overflowing septic tanks.

The Minister of the Environment says this water is drinkable, but let me read a quote from the Lynwood residents that was received a day after this budget was tabled: "This, in the Premier's hometown of Ottawa, where we pay Ottawa's mill rate for property tax, have dirt roads, no storm sewers, resulting in flooding of lawns and driveways, no street lights, poor dial-up Internet, no cable service and no drinkable water," Minister of Health Promotion.

These are Third World conditions and they should not be tolerated in Ontario, especially in the national capital.

The recent budget handed down by this Liberal government has no plans to fix crumbling infrastructure in rural Ottawa. It is shameful and, quite frankly, rural residents in Ottawa deserve better than a rudderless McGuinty ship.