The Senate Committee hears Transport Canada's view of works on Minor Waterways

It is basically as forecast:

"It is not just that you do not have to apply for an approval, but you can also do whatever you want to it."

These pearls of wisdom from Bob Gowe, Manager, Navigable Waters Protection, Transport Canada: transcripts for the meeting of the Standing Senate Committee on Energy, Environment and Natural Resources which was held on Tuesday May 26 2009.


Mr. Gowe: We are not attempting to guide what gets built on the waterway. We are excluding the waterway.
Senator Banks: So I can build anything I want on it?
Mr. Gowe: Yes.
Senator Milne: You can build a four-lane highway over a creek that trickles down a bit in the spring and then is dead for the rest of the year?
Mr. Gowe: Certainly, from a navigational perspective, yes. There would be other laws that would apply. By saying “minor waters,” we are not attempting to dictate what occurs on those waters. If you are talking about a larger navigable water and you are wanting to put a minor work on it, we have clear criteria that you have to meet.

Senator Banks: I want to confirm what you said, that on a waterway that has been defined by a ministerial order as a minor waterway, I can build whatever I want?
Mr. Gowe: As long as that waterway meets the criteria in the minor waters order, yes.
Senator Banks: So I could impede navigation on a minor waterway?
Mr. Gowe: The whole idea of these minor waters being excluded was that there was not reasonable navigation possible on these waterways. That is the bar we have set with the minor waters policy.

Senator Mitchell: It is referred to as «minor navigable waterway.» So what you are saying is a waterway that is navigable, once it is declared minor navigable, is then vulnerable to having whatever anyone would like to build on it, over it, under it, to do that without any regard for the standards that otherwise would have applied under the Navigable Waters Protection Act. In fact, in excluding that waterway, even if it is navigable, it excludes the application of standards that would have applied otherwise.
Mr. Gowe: Right.
Senator Mitchell: It is not just that you do not have to apply for an approval, but you can also do whatever you want to it.
Mr. Gowe: Right.
Senator Mitchell: There is the nut of the problem.
Senator Banks: Oh.
Senator Mitchell: We thought that was not the case, so thank you for the clarification.