Evidence of meeting #21 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 need.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Executive Director, Bay Area Restoration Council
I am sorry, but I speak very little French.
Executive Director, Bay Area Restoration Council
I don't think that was me; I didn't mention lake levels, although lake levels are certainly an issue in Hamilton Harbour and Cootes Paradise.
Project Manager, Toronto and Region Remedial Action Plan, Watershed Management, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority
I didn't mention them.
Executive Director, Bay Area Restoration Council
No, I'm sorry. I don't think so.
NDP
François Choquette NDP Drummond, QC
Ms. Goucher, I will let you discuss the issue of invasive species.
Program Manager, Environmental Defence Canada
What I would say is that I think it's important to look at not just Asian carp and what their potential impact could be on the Great Lakes but also at the impact of all the invasive species on the Great Lakes.
Another figure I'll throw out there is that the Green Budget Coalition had recommended spending $25 million per year for five years to look into some of the impacts and better understand what we can do to address things like zebra mussels.
NDP
François Choquette NDP Drummond, QC
Thank you kindly.
Mr. deBarros, in July 2013, a rain storm caused the City of Toronto's sewers to overflow. It's a common problem. The same thing happened to us, in Drummondville. We had torrential rain, which we very seldom see, and it caused some serious problems. In situations like that, city sewers are no longer efficient and often the water is directly sent into the rivers or the Great Lakes.
Can you talk to us about the importance of investing in green infrastructure? What is your city doing about that?
Project Manager, Toronto and Region Remedial Action Plan, Watershed Management, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority
I can't put a number on what the green infrastructure costs would be, but I know that with the storms we're having now, we're seeing more severe and more frequent severe storms occurring. We believe it's because of the changing climate as well. What used to be one-in-100-year storms are now being talked about by many people as being one-in-10-year storms: it's that kind of rate.
One of the things for the Toronto and region area of concern is the City of Toronto's wet-weather-flow master plan, which is a huge plan at $1.5 billion. There is a component of it that deals with the Don River combined sewer overflows and the central waterfront collection system to collect combined sewer overflow to help prevent some of that mixture of stormwater and sewage from going directly into the lake, being held back to be treated. It will need support by all levels of government, and it is the most important step to the delisting of the area of concern.
Project Manager, Toronto and Region Remedial Action Plan, Watershed Management, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority
I have just one other small point. That wet-weather-flow master plan does consider the sizing required to handle some of the new flows they expect to have due to climate change.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Harold Albrecht
There's time for one question from Mr. Toet, then we're going to cut it off.
Conservative
Lawrence Toet Conservative Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Thank you, Mr. Chair. One question: okay.
There is one thing that has been actually a very common theme not just amongst the panel we have here today, but throughout our study, and maybe we could get just a very quick comment on it.
Mr. McLaughlin, you talked about no command and control from the federal government.
Mr. deBarros, you talked about how no government or entity has the ability or capacity to deal with this completely by themselves.
Maybe you could make just one quick comment on the need for complete community collaboration throughout the system in order to deal with these issues going forward.
Project Manager, Toronto and Region Remedial Action Plan, Watershed Management, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority
Just as a little background, I worked for 33 years with the Ontario environment ministry. I worked very closely with the federal government and a lot of other partners on Great Lakes protection through my career.
One thing that became clear to me is that we look at the Great Lakes as a community, that no one group is a leader. That's the way we try to work at the staff level, at the community level. We work and collaborate as best we can and come up with the plans. This is realizing that there will be constraints, but if we can work together and develop a strategic plan, we can adjust the plan based on resources available.
We know that all governments have to balance budgets, have to deal with health care and other things, but we need to work together in a very collaborative way. Sometimes politics get in the way of that.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Harold Albrecht
With that comment, we will conclude the open part of our meeting.
Thank you to our witnesses. As was pointed out earlier, this is the last of the witnesses dealing with the study on Great Lakes water quality. We're hoping to draft a report over the next number of weeks. At that point, hopefully we'll move ahead with the bigger project.
Thank you again.
[Proceedings continue in camera]