Environment committee  The agreement provides a right to be consulted for any large consumptive takings or exports from the basin, and a right to be heard. It provides certain legal remedies. It would not constitute a veto power, but it does allow you to be heard. It's a reciprocal process, so each of the states and the two provinces have granted that privilege to each other, to act in the best interests of the watershed.

Environment committee  Yes, of the Great Lakes states.

Environment committee  There is a regional body that coordinates the process, but the hearing is in the local jurisdiction.

Environment committee  Yes. If it's Wisconsin that the water taking occurs in. I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with the particular application you're speaking to. Let me turn it around and say that if Ontario were to do this, when we went out for public consultation, it would give the Great Lakes states the opportunity to comment in our public consultation process.

Environment committee  Environment Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada have been active participants in the Lake Simcoe protection plan, initially through, as you suggest, funding on the lake, and currently funding through the Georgian Bay-Lake Simcoe initiative. Much of the work within the agricultural sector has gone towards enhanced best practices.

Environment committee  I can't quote you the numbers on the watershed basis for Lake Simcoe, but in Ontario there are about 59,000 farms in the province, and 23,000 best practices have been funded over about 13,000 different farms. We find that for every dollar that Canada and Ontario put in through the Growing Forward 1 program, we leverage about $3 to $4 of farmer investment in best practices.

Environment committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to speak to the committee today regarding the Great Lakes water quality, an issue that my colleague from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Mr. Bitran, has indicated is very important to the province of Ontario from an environmental, economic, and social perspective.