Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy: Departmental Website Component of the 2012-2013 Report on Plans and Priorities

Each Area of Concern has developed a Remedial Action Plan (RAP) guiding restoration and protection efforts. Remedial Action Plans proceed through three stages.

• Stage One determines the severity and underlying causes of environmental degradation that make the location an AOC.
• Stage Two identifies the goals and recommends actions to restore and protect the ecosystem.
• Stage Three implements the recommended actions and measures progress to ensure the local goals have been met.

It is through these Stage Reports that the determination will be made as to whether the established indicator under the FSDS for Target 3.1 has been met. “For Areas of Concern in the Great Lakes, the change in beneficial use (BU) status from “impaired” or “requires further assessment” to “not impaired” or “restored”.”

For further information please visit the Great Lakes Areas of Concern website and the Great Lakes Sustainability Fund.

Performance expectations:

• RAP Stage reports are issued as critical stages in the RAP are reached.
• Under the Great Lakes Action Plan, actions to continue and complete the restoration of beneficial use impairments in Canadian Areas of Concern in the Great Lakes are undertaken.

A Lakewide Management Plan is an action plan for cooperatively restoring and protecting the ecosystem of a Great Lake. Lakewide Management Plans are in place for Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. A similar Bi-national Partnership Plan is in place for Lake Huron.

One area of focus for Lakewide Management Plans is the management of nutrients. Reports on the activities and status of each Lakewide Management Plan /Bi-national Partnership are issued annually. It is through these reports, and State of the Great Lakes reporting, that the determination will be made as to whether the established indicator under the FSDS for Target 3.2 has been met.

For further information please visit the Great Lakes Lakewide Management Plan website.

Performance expectations:

• 100 percent of Environment Canada’s commitments under Annex 3 (Lake and Basin Sustainability) in the Canada-Ontario Agreement are assessed as being on-track for completion by June, 2012.

Partnerships have been established on an overall Great Lakes basin scale through the Canada-Ontario Agreement Respecting the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem, on a lake basin scale through Lakewide Management Plans and a bi-national partnership, and on a local scale through geographic and issue specific programs and activities.

The provision of funding, technical/scientific expertise, coordination and communication activities assist other levels of government, organizations and communities in working together to resolve issues and protect Great Lakes ecosystems. For example, Lake Huron’s Southeast Shore Working Group, Aboriginal Elders workshops and Lake Erie’s Nutrient Management Strategy have assisted many partners in addressing nutrients and other ecosystem issues.

Performance expectations:

• All four of the bi-national Great Lakes will have established co-operative partnerships.

In partnership with municipalities in the Great Lakes Basin, research and development will be undertaken to evaluate/enhance wastewater process technologies. In addition, existing anaerobic technologies will be adapted and optimized using membrane processes for efficient treatment of raw municipal wastewater, to serve as a sustainable treatment technology for use in the Great Lakes Basin.

The Great Lakes Bi-national Toxics Strategy (GLBTS) sets forth a collaborative, beyond compliance, bi-national process by which Environment Canada and the United States Environmental Protection Agency along with provinces, states, first nations, tribes, industry, environmental groups and individual citizens, come together in substance-specific work groups to execute reduction challenges for all of the GLBTS targeted level one substances.

Another mechanism that supports voluntary approaches is the Canada-Ontario Agreement Respecting the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem (COA). The Harmful Pollutants Annex to the COA sets out goals to achieve progress towards the virtual elimination of persistent bioaccumulative toxic substances and significant reductions of other harmful pollutants.

Performance expectations:

• In partnership with municipalities in the Great Lakes Basin, research and development will be undertaken to evaluate/enhance wastewater process technologies.
• Existing anaerobic technologies will be adapted and optimized using membrane processes for efficient treatment of raw municipal wastewater, to serve as a sustainable treatment technology for use in the Great Lakes Basin.

A Canada-U.S. State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference (SOLEC) is held every three years to report on the state of the Great Lakes, to facilitate information sharing amongst Great Lakes decision-makers, and to provide information to government, corporate, and not-for-profit sectors that make decisions that affect the lakes.

A public-friendly State of the Great Lakes Highlights Report, along with a more detailed, technical report is issued every three years, with an overall assessment of the status of the Great Lakes ecosystem based on environmental and human health indicators.

Link to State of the Great Lakes Reporting web page.

A Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy Progress Report is issued every two years, with a public-friendly newsletter being issued in the intervening years. The GLBTS provides a binational framework for actions to reduce or eliminate persistent toxic substances in the Great Lakes, and establishes reduction challenges for persistent toxic substances targeted for virtual elimination.

Link to the Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy web page.

Performance expectations:

• RAP Stage reports are issued as critical phases in the RAP are reached.
• State of the Great Lakes Highlights Reports and a detailed technical report is issued triennially.
• A Great Lakes BTS Progress Report is issued biennially, with a newsletter issued in the intervening years.
• As previously noted under 3.1.2, Lakewide Management Plans Update reports will be issued annually.

In 2003, the Great Lakes Binational Executive Committee endorsed the Cooperative Science & Monitoring Initiative (CSMI) to improve the coordination of monitoring in the Great Lakes. A five-year rotational cycle was adopted to focus on one lake per year.

The complete cycle for each lake involves two years of planning, one year of field activity and two years for analysis, synthesis and reporting. Starting with Lake Huron, the connecting channels will be included with the downstream lakes to the extent that they impact the downstream lakes.

Performance expectations:

• Publication of the findings regarding Lake Erie.
• Publication of proceedings or selected papers in 2012 from the Lake Ontario workshop held in 2011.
• CSMI field work will be carried out in Lake Huron; lab analysis will be undertaken in 2012 on samples taken from Lake Superior in 2011.
• The planning cycle for the 2013 intensive field year on Lake Ontario, Niagara River and international portion of the St. Lawrence River will begin in 2012–2013.

The Great Lakes Basin initiative will deliver the following programs; thereby, supporting the development of federal actions to improve the quality of water in the Great Lakes.

• Provide the results of applied scientific research, monitoring and assessment;
• Coordinate community delivery of actions, public involvement and reporting progress;
• Publish contaminated sediment assessments and development of sediment management plans; and,
• Promote dissemination of research results on stormwater management, combined sewer overflow control and treatment, and innovative wastewater management through the existing mechanisms (e.g., Science Alert) as well as through new methods, e.g., direct contact with Remedial Action Plan teams.

Performance expectations:

• By October 2012, compile a list of the remaining research needs in Area of Concerns with significant wet-weather flow pollution and municipal wastewater treatment issues, and suggest solutions.
• Goals as set out in the Canada-Ontario Agreement are fully met.

Each year, federal-provincial agencies signatory to Canada–Ontario Agreement (COA) Respecting the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem take part in a comprehensive update of their work plans to deliver their agency’s COA commitments. Work plans are assessed each year to determine whether they will meet the Goals/Results/Commitments contained in COA; the results of which are presented to the COA Management Committee in the Fall for direction and decision.

Canada–Ontario Agreement Respecting the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem Progress Reports are issued, setting out current status in meeting Canada–Ontario Agreement Respecting the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem COA commitments. A final Progress Report is issued at the end of each Canada-Ontario Agreement to provide a conclusive report card on implementation of the Agreement.

Performance expectations:

• Results of the annual assessment of progress against work plans to be completed by the Fall of each year.
• Canada–Ontario Agreement Progress Reports are issued regularly during the life of, and upon completion, of each Canada-Ontario Agreement

Management and delivery of the bi-national Great Lakes program is co-ordinated through the Great Lakes Binational Executive Committee (BEC). BEC is a forum comprised of senior-level representatives of Canadian and U.S. federal, state and provincial agencies accountable for delivering programs and activities that respond to the terms of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA).

As part of the negotiations of amendments to the GLWQA, Canada and the United States are examining, improving and strengthening bi-national management for overseeing the implementation of the Agreement.

Performance expectations:

• Bi-national issues in the Great Lakes are managed, strategic direction provided and decisions made by senior-level representatives of Canadian and U.S. federal, state and provincial agencies that are accountable for delivering programs and activities that respond to the terms of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA).