Environment committee  No, pollution is a factor.

Environment committee  Pollution in places like Hamilton Harbour—that's very contaminated waters, obviously. Wetland plants cannot grow in that kind of habitat, and it ends up being a monoculture of one or two species that can thrive in polluted waters.

Environment committee  I don't think I could give you an exact answer for that, because it depends on where you're sampling, and the Great Lakes are so huge. Also, the temperatures she was talking about were in one of these more shallow bays, so that's why it got up that high. We think that's also a contributing factor to the fish and bird die-offs on the south beaches of Georgian Bay, where the water temperature is warmer.

Environment committee  That research has been done up on Lake Superior. They have extrapolated that down for Lakes Michigan and Huron and Georgian Bay, so to extrapolate is a way to estimate.

Environment committee  Well, David just told you. It's the U.S. agency. We don't have any Canadian agency that's doing that kind of work.

Environment committee  Climate change is here. It's here. We have clear evidence of it now. The report that's just been released makes it even more scary than we previously thought it was. In terms of its impact on the Great Lakes, obviously it's warming water temperatures. McMaster University's Dr.

Environment committee  Of course, there's a role the federal government can play. We all need to be acting to reduce whatever impacts we can, whatever is contributing to climate change, obviously. Reducing greenhouse gas, that's a given, and being able to figure out how we can adjust to this in some way.

Environment committee  Absolutely. If you think, that's how the phosphorous was first identified as a major contributing factor to algae, and that is the setting within which those kinds of research projects can be carried out. We have no place else like that.

Environment committee  Canada and U.S....?

Environment committee  I would just add that the whole question is whether there is adequate funding to actually implement the terms.

Environment committee  We are going to catch some, but no, we need to start to manage the Great Lakes much more responsibly than we are now. Canada doesn't even have a flow meter at a critical part in the St. Clair River, so we don't even really know what's happening there.

Environment committee  The St. Clair River....

Environment committee  It's all of the Great Lakes—99% is left from the retreat of the ice age, so it's a glacial deposit. One per cent is a renewable resource that's renewed by rainfall and snowfall precipitation.

Environment committee  That's correct.

Environment committee  That's correct.