NDP Environment Critic Peter Tabuns today said that the McGuinty government’s failure to adequately monitor and control water use by golf courses on the Oak Ridges Moraine is threatening water supply for more than 250,000 Ontarians.

“Dalton McGuinty’s Oak Ridges Moraine management strategy doesn’t make the cut,” said Tabuns. “His government is blindly handing out permits that allow golf courses to take billions of litres out of the watershed without any real consideration of the human or environmental consequences.”

Freedom of information requests and investigations by two environmental groups - Ecojustice and Earthroots - have shed light on the government’s failure to protect the Moraine.

“This Liberal government overlooks expired permits, grants permits without environmental assessments, and fails to collect proper information from golf course owners,” said Tabuns.

For example, Station Creek golf course operated an irrigation system without a permit for four years between 2003 and 2007. And in 2006, Westhill Enterprises was issued a “Permit to Take Water” without even conducting a basic environmental assessment.

“Sadly, for the McGuinty government, this kind of environmental mismanagement has become par for the course. And unlike in golf, the government can’t take a mulligan. When the water is gone, there are no second chances,” said Tabuns.

Tabuns suggested that if the government really wanted to protect the moraine and water supply for its communities, it would put a moratorium on new golf courses on the moraine and develop environment standards for all new golf courses in Ontario.

“There are already 17 golf courses in an eight-kilometre radius. How many more can the area sustain?” he asked.

Tabuns added that this Fall’s Ontario Municipal Board review of the proposed Westhill development in Aurora will be a litmus test of the Oak Ridges Conservation Act’s ability to actually protect this sensitive yet threatened resource.