During the second annual Great Lakes Day on Parliament Hill, a number of organizations, including the Council of the Great Lakes Region, called on the Government of Canada to establish an Independent Panel of Stakeholders to undertake a strategic review of federal Great Lakes and St. Lawrence investments and programs with a view to increasing investment and improving programming to protect the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence.
GLRI-type process proposed to Environment and Climate Change Minister
Ottawa, ON November 22, 2017 – Today, mayors, businesses and NGOs gathered in Ottawa to call for a collaborative process to amplify and accelerate Great Lakes and St. Lawrence protection and restoration, at their second annual Parliament Hill Days. The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence advocates requested that Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna establish an Independent Panel of Stakeholders to undertake a strategic review of federal Great Lakes and St. Lawrence investments and programs with a view to increasing investment and improving programing to protect the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence.
“Despite years of effort by all levels of government, we are not keeping up with the compounding stressors and new threats to the Great Lakes,” said Tony Maas, of Freshwater Future, “We need to up our game to combat the impacts of climate change, agricultural and urban run-off, new chemicals, invasive species and habitat loss.”
The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, Freshwater Future, Council of the Great Lakes Region, Strategies Saint Laurent and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and other key stakeholders met with Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna while in Ottawa, to propose a Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Collaborative Strategy to find ways to accelerate and amplify the impact of investments and programs to protect and restore the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence.
“We are inspired by the success of the US Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which demonstrated how federal commitment and financing transformed the shorelines and communities of the Great Lakes,” said
