Winnipeg -- The Manitoba government is pushing ahead with a new water-quality bill that critics say is so sweeping it could force farmers off their land.
The Water Protection Act, which is expected to become law soon, allows the provincial cabinet to take any action necessary to protect creeks, rivers and lakes.
The bill gives the NDP cabinet, which meets behind closed doors, the right to make regulations "governing, regulating or prohibiting any use, activity or thing in a water-quality management zone or any part of a zone."
The opposition Conservatives say the wording is too vague.
Conservative agriculture critic Jack Penner suggested the government could, on a whim, ban farming in one or more areas. CPCopyright 2005 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc
