Environment committee  Just as a little background, I worked for 33 years with the Ontario environment ministry. I worked very closely with the federal government and a lot of other partners on Great Lakes protection through my career. One thing that became clear to me is that we look at the Great Lakes as a community, that no one group is a leader.

Environment committee  I have just one other small point. That wet-weather-flow master plan does consider the sizing required to handle some of the new flows they expect to have due to climate change.

Environment committee  I didn't mention them.

Environment committee  I can't put a number on what the green infrastructure costs would be, but I know that with the storms we're having now, we're seeing more severe and more frequent severe storms occurring. We believe it's because of the changing climate as well. What used to be one-in-100-year storms are now being talked about by many people as being one-in-10-year storms: it's that kind of rate.

Environment committee  Well, I'd make one slight change. They're filter feeders, so they're feeding on the particulate that's in the water, the algae, bits of sediment and that, which they take it in. When they excrete it, it becomes soluble.

Environment committee  That's one of the issues that lead to the extensive algal growth that you see in the nearshore.

Environment committee  What I tried to point out was that the information that was obtained through the intensive monitoring research work in 2008 showed that tributaries contributed 234% more phosphorus load to the system than point sources. The way the study was done, they looked at various different landscape types and the impacts on the nearshore.

Environment committee  I think we're going to be stuck with them forever. That's going to be the tough part to deal with. Maybe we should be doing some research on something that's environmentally safe that can eradicate them. I don't know. The only levers we as humans have to twist or turn are the ones that we cause.

Environment committee  That's my point exactly. Where I was trying to get to is that we need to start dealing with it, and dealing with it sooner rather than later.

Environment committee  That's right.

Environment committee  That would be worked on with the TRCA and...with the airport lands ready to be built out. It's been done in Duffins Creek and it will be done in the Rouge River as well.

Environment committee  I am not involved in it directly. I deal with—

Environment committee  The TRCA would be involved, yes. Their other staff would be the ones involved in that.

Environment committee  The question was asked about what measures should be taken. Chris mentioned green infrastructure; you can call it low-impact development or whatever. That's what you would apply to those new, urbanizing areas where you have the ability to implement that. One of the problems we have with implementing low-impact development right now in Canada is that a lot of the measures are very well known and used in Europe and in the U.S.A., but we don't have the experience and the information on how these measures perform in Canada under the climatic conditions we have.

Environment committee  Well, it's more than wetlands. It's actually changing the whole urban landscape. It's how you actually have your residential and commercial lots.