Speech

Introduction

Good morning, everyone!

I’m so pleased to be back here today, at Sherbourne Common, to discuss the Great Lakes and the progress being made in dealing with the environmental challenges facing this important ecosystem.

In 2010, I had the honour of being involved in the opening of this Park, which is the first Park in Canada to integrate a neighbourhood-wide stormwater treatment facility into its design. There is an ultraviolet facility for East Bayfront’s stormwater management system in the basement of this Pavilion. Collected stormwater is treated and released from the three dramatic art features here in the Park into the 240-metre long water channel in front of me, and then back out to Lake Ontario. 

It is remarkable technology, and a truly inspired use of public space. I want to thank our friends at Waterfront Toronto for hosting us here today. I can’t think of a better place to celebrate both World Water Day and the good work being done to improve water quality overall in the Great Lakes.

The Great Lakes are fundamental to the well-being of millions of Canadians and Americans who live and work along their shores. Protecting water quality and ecosystem health in the Great Lakes is vital to ensuring that Canadians can continue to depend on this rich ecosystem for their drinking water, for recreation and for jobs.

The Great Lakes are the largest system of fresh surface water on earth, providing approximately 20 per cent of the world's fresh surface water. They form an ecosystem that supports more than 3,500 species of plants and animals, and fishing and shipping industries that inject more than $7 billion annually into Canada's economy.

The Government of Canada’s vision for the Great Lakes is for them to be fishable, swimmable, and drinkable for many generations to come. 

Realising this vision means addressing the challenges in the Great Lakes. There are a number of stresses to the ecosystem: population growth and agricultural intensification, the introduction of aquatic invasive species and changing climate conditions, municipal wastewater effluents and industrial discharges. These challenges are complex and interconnected.

Thankfully, governments, community groups, researchers and concerned citizens recognize the Great Lakes importance and are all contributing to improving this vital ecosystem. It’s a pleasure to see representatives from many of those groups here today.

Indeed, we are here today to celebrate the tremendous work that partners all around the Great Lakes Basin are doing to restore this crucial resource. I’m especially pleased to highlight that, since March 2011, the Government of Canada has contributed $3.3 million to Great Lakes clean-up projects through our Great Lakes Sustainability Fund.

The Great Lakes Sustainability Fund’s goal is to help advance actions to restore the health of Canada’s Areas of Concern, which are severely degraded geographic areas within the Great Lakes Basin which have been designated pursuant to the Canada-United States Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The Fund supports community-level projects that serve to restore the environment in Areas of Concern. Such projects include fish and wildlife habitat restoration, contaminated sediment remediation, landowner stewardship, and control of pollution from municipal wastewaters and rural runoff.

Since 1989, the Fund has supported more than 800 projects and has resulted in three Areas of Concern at Collingwood, Severn Sound and Wheatley, Ontario being fully restored and removed from the list of Areas of Concern. In this last fiscal year alone, we’ve invested more than $3.3 million for 46 projects to help restore water quality in the remaining 14 Areas of Concern on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes.

Support for Toronto and Region Area of Concern

As a Torontonian, and befitting our location here this morning, it gives me particular pleasure to talk about the work being done in the Toronto and Region Area of Concern. This is a massive area that covers six watersheds and supports more than three million people. So I’m proud to highlight that through the Great Lakes Sustainability Fund, the Government of Canada has committed more than $530,000 this year for eight remediation and clean-up projects in the area.

For example, in partnership with the Government of Canada and the Toronto Region Conservation Authority, Aquatic Habitat Toronto is working to create wetlands around the Toronto Islands. Vegetated shorelines and approximately 1.5 hectares of wetland are being created to provide habitat for aquatic species and semi-aquatic terrestrial species.

Conclusion

The Government of Canada is committed to delivering a clean and healthy environment for all Canadians. 

Through the efforts of all of you here and our partners throughout the Great Lakes Basin, we’ve made significant progress towards cleaning up the Great Lakes. But we all know the job is not finished. That is we need to keep working together; governments, community groups, researchers and citizens, to ensure that we sustain these Great Lakes for future generations.  

Thank you.