The Liberals won the provincial election of 2003, and Dombrowsky was re-elected by about 8,000 votes over her Progressive Conservative opponent. On October 23, 2003, she was appointed Minister of the Environment. In this capacity, she was responsible for overseeing changes to the province's water supply system (the safety of which was called into question after a tragic outbreak of e-coli in Walkerton, Ontario). Dombrowsky's ministry hired more full-time water inspectors and also called for the phasing out of coal-fired electrical generating plants.