Green Party calls for independent body to oversee high-capacity wells on P.E.I.

P.E.I.'s Green Party is calling on the province to set up an "arm's-length, independent body" to oversee the approval of new high-capacity wells.

Conditions on P.E.I. over the summer were dry, and that led to potato yields being down by 30 per cent.

Friday, in the P.E.I. Legislature, Green MLA Peter Bevan-Baker pressed the province's environment minister for answers on who is overseeing requests for new high-capacity wells.

There has been a slew of new applications from farmers for the wells — more than 70. If approved, that would triple the number currently in use.

Bevan-Baker said the province's irrigation strategy, released in 2022, outlines the need for independent governance of high-capacity well applications.

"On governance, the irrigation strategy says this: 'exploration of how this can be done by an arm's-length, independent body is underway, which has been indicated as a preferred model by stakeholders,'" Bevan-Baker said.

"More than three years later, has this arm's-length, independent governance body, which is so critical to the future of sustainable water use on P.E.I., been established?"

P.E.I. Environment Minister Gilles Arsenault said his department has been working with farmers.

"I've met with over 20 farmers this year in the Kinkora area to address exactly what the honourable member is referencing," he said.

"We will continue to work closely with them.... Our staff are constantly engaged with the people in the industry and making sure that we're looking after the needs of our farmers."

Bevan-Baker replied by reading part of a statement from the P.E.I. Potato Board that said the agriculture industry wants protections and regulations for responsible water use.

"What we do not have, minister, is a good governance system that was promised in the irrigation strategy," he said.

"The Water Act development process, in contrast, brought together all the voices from various stakeholder communities to build this critical piece of legislation. It was great work, but without proper governance structures in place, all of that good work could go to waste."

Arsenault said the government is taking the issue seriously.