Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you very much for inviting us to appear here today.
With me, as you noted, is Ms. Fe de Leon, researcher and paralegal with the Canadian Environmental Law Association. I'm counsel and executive director with the Canadian Environmental Law Association.
Canadian Environmental Law Association is a specialty legal aid clinic, a 44-year-old NGO, federally incorporated. We use law to protect and advance protection of the environment. We act for vulnerable communities and people who can't afford legal representation, and we also do test-case and systemic litigation.
We're going to address four points in our remarks today, and we will keep them brief to allow plenty of time for questions.
The first is going to deal with the importance of the Canada-Ontario agreement to reaching the goals of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, and of sufficient resourcing in order to do that.
Second, we will deal with the importance of public engagement in Great Lakes issues.
Third, we'll speak about the importance of Canada's actions on toxic chemicals and their reduction specifically with respect to the Great Lakes.
Finally, we will speak about the necessity for stronger action on nutrients.
First, turning to the importance of the Canada-Ontario agreement, or COA, this agreement, along with the parallel Canada-Quebec agreement for the St. Lawrence is the primary mechanism, as we understand it, by which Canada pursues its obligations to achieve the objectives of the binational Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
The COA, as you no doubt would have heard by now, is currently undergoing its first ever extended hiatus since the first version was enacted in the 1970s. In our opinion, it's imperative that the Canada-Ontario renegotiation be concluded and that all of the other Great Lakes programs that Canada and Ontario pursue under that agreement continue with the support and the force of the COA.
To that end, we would also note that federal funding of Great Lakes programs that support the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and the COA objectives is essential. CELA is an active member of the Green Budget Coalition. In our last annual report we called for the continuation of the $48 million a year to our Great Lakes programs that the federal government currently spends across departments, according to the numbers posted on Environment Canada's website, and for the enhancement of those resources by another $25 million per year to work towards Great Lakes water quality programs.
Second, turning to the issue of public engagement, the Canadian public has a huge stake in the health of the Great Lakes. I'm sure by now you will have already heard testimony as to the importance of the Great Lakes as the drinking water for millions of Canadians, the importance of the Great Lakes fisheries, the economic importance of Canada's location on this globally significant freshwater resource, and of course its sterling role in recreation and tourism in Canada.
To that end, decision-making and pursuit of the efforts needed to either protect or restore Great Lakes water quality absolutely must include very strong public roles. We're pleased that this was strengthened in the recent Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, and we would suggest that this must also be actively pursued in the renegotiation of the Canada-Ontario agreement. We would also suggest that a deliberate effort to ensure every Great Lakes program include a strong role for the public both in decision-making and in participation should be a primary consideration.
In the past, Great Lakes decision-making was often behind governmental closed doors, between jurisdictions, and reports were issued long after the fact. That disengages the public and makes it hard for people to appreciate what the issues are, and of course reduces support for the necessary programs.
Third, on reducing toxic contaminants in the Great Lakes, CELA has undertaken several reports and studies over the years. Our reports have examined the Canadian contribution, as well as the binational contribution, of toxic pollution in particular to the Great Lakes, and the total numbers are startling. Ms. de Leon will speak to this in moment. Efforts to reduce the release of carcinogens, hormone-disrupting chemicals and toxic substances which cause myriad other health effects to humans and to the ecosystem must be redoubled. Ms. de Leon will speak to that.
Fourth is the necessity to reduce nutrient loadings to the Great Lakes. In the short time we have today we want to highlight the continuing and troublesome issue of excess loadings of nutrients from a variety of agricultural, industrial, and domestic sources. Again, as you no doubt know, these are both from direct emissions and from dispersed non-point sources across the landscape, and interestingly, also through air pathways.
We would suggest that the federal government expand its phosphorus regulation under CEPA, the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. That's regulation 89-501, which was amended in 2009. We would suggest that additional products and additional constraints be added to that regulation. The 2009 amendments added additional dishwashing and laundry detergents to the prior constraints on liquid dishwashing detergents, but we would suggest those limits should be tightened even further.
In addition, in our view the CEPA powers could be used to require, for example, agricultural uses of synthetic fertilizers to be limited seasonally to the time of year when crops can actually take up the nutrients. We also think the COA could include an agreement with Ontario to similarly restrict sales of such fertilizers outside of those seasons, and to investigate methods to reduce transmission of nutrients through agricultural and municipal drains.
Finally, the federal funding of the environmental farm plan program has been an extremely important mechanism for individual farms to reduce phosphorus and other nutrient loadings. We would suggest that be expanded as well.
Before we conclude, I'll turn it over to my colleague, Ms. de Leon, to briefly expand on the role of CEPA and the issue of toxic loadings in the Great Lakes.