Policy Transfer Among Regional-Level Organizations: Insights from Source Water Protection in Ontario

Abstract

Organizations at the local and regional scales often face the challenge of developing policy mechanisms rapidly and concurrently, whether in response to expanding mandates, newly identified threats, or changes in the political environment. In the Canadian Province of Ontario, rapid, concurrent policy development was considered desirable by 19 regional organizations tasked with developing policies for protection of drinking water sources under very tight and highly prescribed mandates. An explicit policy transfer approach was used by these organizations. Policy transfer refers to using knowledge of policies, programs, and institutions in one context in the development of policies, programs, and institutions in another. This paper assesses three online mechanisms developed to facilitate policy transfer for source water protection in Ontario. Insights are based on a survey of policy planners from the 19 regional organizations who used the three policy transfer tools, supplemented by an analysis of three policies created and transferred among the 19 regional source water protection organizations. Policy planners in the study indicated they had used policy transfer to develop source protection policies for their regions-a finding confirmed by analysis of the text of policies. While the online policy transfer tools clearly facilitated systematic policy transfer, participants still preferred informal, direct exchanges with their peers in other regions over the use of the internet-based policy transfer mechanisms created on their behalf.

Ontario’s Clean Water Act and Capacity Building: Implications for Serviced Rural Municipalities

“…Municipalities are the frontline actors for drinking water management, with responsibilities for land use planning, water supply distribution, wastewater treatment, and SWP [25]. Unfortunately, capacity at the local level is particularly limited in rural communities, making places like Walkerton, Ontario (with a population of 4800 people at the time of the outbreak in 2000) [2] a prime place for drinking water safety vulnerabilities. SWP capacity related limitations in rural areas include (but are not limited to): lack of technical expertise and staff; small revenue bases; accessibility difficulties; and large geographies [5,11,21,26].…”

“…There are sixteen source protection regions representing groupings of two or more conservation authority boundaries, and three source protection areas that were created using the boundary of one single conservation authority. Conservation authorities are local water management organizations, some existing since 1946, under the Conservation Authorities Act [2,15]. Conservation authorities (a lead conservation authority in the case of the source protection regions) have acted as the source protection authority, providing technical and administrative support to the source protection committee.…”

“…Though there were policy tools for municipalities in regard to SWP previous to the Walkerton tragedy, these were implemented in an ad hoc manner [14,15]. The CWA and it's regulations were created in response to Justice O'Connor's recommendations [2,8,15] and resulted in Ontario "making more comprehensive efforts to focus on source water protection than in other Canadian jurisdictions" [13] (p. 9). Ontario's Act was designed to be an integrated, science-based approach, using a governance structure that engaged multiple stakeholders.…”

“…SWP is, "the development and implementation of policies, plans and activities to prevent or minimize direct or indirect release of pollutants into surface or groundwater resources currently used or intended to be used in the future as sources of drinking water" [5] (p. 944). SWP can be an important first line of defense in ensuring drinking water safety, and is an essential component in a multi-barrier approach to drinking water management [2,6]. SWP reduces costs of treatment and enhances drinking water safety [7][8][9].…”

“…In 2000, the contamination of Walkerton, Ontario's water supply by Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Campylobacter jejuni killed seven people and resulted in 2300 cases of serious illness [1,2]. The primary source of the contamination was manure from a nearby farm entering the municipal well [3].…”