Whenever people are involved, a population getting involved with the Great Lakes.... In the areas of concern that we have, the hotspots around the Great Lakes, the remedial action plans are populated almost entirely by volunteers, by people who are participating in helping to solve the problem.
I'm thinking of the Hamilton Harbour, the Randle Reef, and Toronto, but all the harbours that have had issues. The Collingwood Harbour, the Wheatley Harbour, the Severn Sound—they have been removed as areas of concern because people were involved. So the testimony to people being involved actually coming up with the solutions is huge.
The dimensions of the problem are gigantic as well. When you think about the Great Lakes fishery, think just in terms of Lake Erie. The walleye industry alone is close to $1 billion a year. That's a huge industry and there are an awful lot of people who are involved with it. To the extent that groups from schools and other kinds of associations can be brought together to work in their organizations, to work with the IJC.... We have many organizations within the IJC that are populated by volunteer participation.
To the extent that more people can get involved in it, that's going to be extremely important to solving the issues coming in the future, especially with the concentrated populations that are growing up in this area. It just gets greater and greater. Since 1960 we've probably seen almost a doubling of the population in the basin. Well, that has a huge impact. It is very important that people be involved to the extent that they can be encouraged, by all means.