Abang Johari (fourth left) and other members of the Sarawak delegation in a discussion with Jones during the courtesy call.
Abang Johari (third left) presenting a souvenir to Jones at the end of the courtesy call.
KUCHING: Sarawak’s man-made water bodies will be orderly managed and developed to create more economic benefits for Sarawak and the local people instead of just merely for power generation, said Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg on Tuesday in Toronto, the capital of the province of Ontario, Canada.
Citing Ontario’s especially strong experience in the management and development of water bodies, it was the country to learn from in Sarawak’s programme to turn its hydro dams into other economic assets, the Chief Minister pointed out in his discussion with Ontario’s Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, Sylvia Jones his delegation’s courtesy call on the former at her office at the provincial legislative building in Toronto.
Abang Johari is currently leading a delegation consisting of ministers and key government officials for a five-day study tour to Ontario.
He said the Sarawak government would be seeking to develop a close collaboration with the Ontario provincial government in order to learn from the province’s wealth of experience in managing fresh water bodies, particularly the Great Lakes and hydro dams.
He expressed the intention of the Sarawak government to send state officials to Ontario to study closely various relevant aspects of water management such as water policy, water legislation, scientific research, lakes development and environmental enforcement and compliance.
He told Jones, who represented Ontario’s premier that Sarawak was drafting a law to regulate the use and govern the development of the man-made lakes in the state and that would provide for a body to be instituted to enforce the law with Canada’s standards to benchmark upon.
“The body which would probably be called Lake Development Authority shall ensure that our lakes are properly managed and developed,” he said.
Later, the delegation was taken on a tour of the legislative building where parliament was in session.
Meanwhile, another group visited the Ontario Power Generation (OPG) headquarters in Toronto where they were briefed, among others, on Ontario’s electricity system and OPG’s indigenous relations.
In the afternoon, the delegates were guests at the provincial Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport to share in Ontario’s experience in the development of tourism, sport and culture.
Yesterday morning, the Sarawak delegation visited the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks where they were given an overview of the various aspects of Ontario’s water policy.
In the afternoon, they were taken on a tour of University of Waterloo’s Water Institute about two hours drive from Toronto, where they given insights into various aspects of water-related researches at the institute.
Key members of the delegation were the Minister of Utilities Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom, the Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah and the State Secretary Tan Sri Datuk Amar Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Ghani.
Other members included the Assistant Minister of Water Supplies Datuk Liwan Lagang, Assistant Minister of Urban Planning, Land Administration and Environment Datuk Len Talif Salleh, Kapit MP Datuk Alexander Nanta Linggi and key officials of various relevant agencies.
Tomorrow the delegation will tour the Sir Adam Beck Hydro Electric Plant South of Toronto near the Niagara Falls.