Evidence of meeting #12 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 41st Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was phosphorus.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Mylène Freeman NDP Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
Very well.
The Great Lakes get a lot of farm runoff that adds nutrients, including phosphorus. And phosphorus causes algae bloom, which damages fish habitat.
Could you please enlighten us as to the current and planned efforts to address this situation?
Director, Science Coordination Division, Science and Technology Branch, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food
As I said in my presentation, we conduct scientific research with the goal of understanding best practices and beneficial management practices.
NDP
Mylène Freeman NDP Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
Could you tell us about some of the best practices?
Director, Science Coordination Division, Science and Technology Branch, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food
Yes, I mentioned a few of them. An example would be the use of precision agriculture to try to spread the right fertilizers to the right areas at the right time. Our research focuses on other practices as well, such as controlled tile drainage. And there are other practices that could be fairly effective at reducing the flow of phosphorus.
NDP
Mylène Freeman NDP Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
Thank you.
I will now move on to the Infrastructure Canada officials.
During your presentation, you said that wastewater treatment would still be an eligible investment category under the new building Canada plan. You also called wastewater treatment a priority, saying it had a major impact on contamination.
I would just like you to clarify something about wastewater treatment, if you would. Here, it talks about municipal infrastructure. How is the whole issue of individuals with septic systems dealt with, for example? Is that done?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy and Communications, Infrastructure Canada
Infrastructure Canada does not support projects at the individual level.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy and Communications, Infrastructure Canada
Normally, we work with the provinces and territories. They are the authorities that identify the priorities for their own province or territory. We work with them to fund the projects. We usually cover 33% of the costs associated with a project, but it can be as much as 50%.
NDP
Mylène Freeman NDP Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
Basically, if there were a project targeting individuals, it would possibly go through the municipality, is that right?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy and Communications, Infrastructure Canada
It depends. The municipality would have to decide that the project was a priority, and it would have to work with the province to make that decision. It would have to be a municipal project.
NDP
Mylène Freeman NDP Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
It would still be worthwhile. Let's say some municipality wanted to have a program that would offer financial support to help people who have septic systems. How would that work?
I am less familiar with the Great Lakes region, but I do know that other areas are having problems as well, like my riding. Is this something that would be possible? How would a project proposal like this proceed?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy and Communications, Infrastructure Canada
Under normal circumstances, I think the project would have to directly support the entire municipality. And as I said, we don't usually work with individuals. The project would also have to meet the program criteria for grants and contributions.
NDP
Mylène Freeman NDP Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
That is interesting.
Thank you. I have no further questions.
I have one question for Fisheries and Oceans.
I'm not very familiar with the Fisheries Act. I'm new to this committee, so I'm getting to know all the related legislation.
Could you explain to this committee the most recent changes to the Fisheries Act, and how they would affect the monitoring of the Great Lakes fisheries?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Ecosystems and Fisheries Management, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
I guess the way I would summarize the changes to the Fisheries Act is that insofar as fisheries management is concerned, they're quite limited. Really, the changes to the Fisheries Act focus mostly on section 35, which changed the provisions we use to manage and protect habitat, and make a shift from the protection of all aquatic habitat basically in all circumstances across the country to focusing the act much more on the protection of habitat necessary for commercial, recreational and aboriginal fisheries.
There are a number of changes as well to the enforcement provisions and the penalty provisions associated with that, but for the most part, insofar as how we manage fisheries in the Great Lakes or anywhere else for that matter is concerned, the recent changes to the act have no real impact on that whatsoever.
NDP
Mylène Freeman NDP Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
If there's one problem that needs to be addressed for you, what would it be?
Acting Regional Director General, Department of Fisheries and Oceans
I guess the biggest challenge we have in the Great Lakes would be the issues around invasive species and how we respond to that. We talked about algae blooms earlier. You can look at the indices and say that it's a glass half full or half empty, but quagga mussels and zebra mussels have helped with water clarity, but they're also a major source for algae bloom as well.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Harold Albrecht
Thank you, Madame Freeman.
We move now to Mr. Carrie, for seven minutes.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
I want to thank the witnesses today. I find this to be extremely interesting.
I want to start off by asking a question. Dr. Campbell, I think it was you who mentioned Harrow and the use of cover crops and organic amendments that helped decrease pollution. Was that you who mentioned that in your opening speech?
Director, Science Coordination Division, Science and Technology Branch, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food
I'm not sure if I got into quite that much detail, but I did mention work at Harrow.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
My background is more into natural health care medicine. I remember so many people bringing up with me the organic versus traditional type of fertilizers. I was wondering if there's anything you could comment on about how effective the organic route is in decreasing problematic effluents into the lakes. Are there any results or anything you could tell us about what's going on there?
Director, Science Coordination Division, Science and Technology Branch, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food
I don't think we have any particular research on that very specifically. In general, organic production may or may not be more conserving of nutrients, if I can put it that way. It depends an awful lot on soils, on tillage practices. Just because it's organic doesn't mean you're using one particular tillage practice over another tillage practice. It will depend a lot on what practices you're using in your organic practices. There's no specific set of practices that qualify as organic, and quite a range of potential outcomes.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
I have another question kind of along the same line.
I remember patients always wondering about medication, hormones being released into the lakes. We're looking at water quality with this study. Does anybody look at that? Is it a problem? Does anybody have any comments about awareness of having hormones or medications being put into the Great Lakes?