Yes. Thank you for the question.
We've pulled data that we accessed through federal reporting. We found that between 2008 and 2022, Ontario received $224 million in federal freshwater funds for the Great Lakes and Lake Simcoe protection and restoration. We saw in budget 2023 a real historic commitment of $420 million over 10 years for the Great Lakes. In a 25-year period, that's roughly $650 million in federal funds to fresh water in Ontario, which is needed. Similarly, we've seen significant investments of $62 million between 2008 and 2022 for restoration in Manitoba and another $111 million for the St. Lawrence action plan in Quebec.
However, we really haven't seen these federal funds allocated in British Columbia.
Much of the federal funding for fresh water has been allocated through agreements with these specific provinces to assure the alignment in federal and provincial funding approaches. This is really an opportunity for freshwater funding programs for provinces to be aligned with British Columbia.
We're seeing that two of B.C.'s major watersheds—the Fraser and the Mackenzie—have been named as priorities of the current federal freshwater action plan, but no funds have been committed to that.
When we look at what's currently allocated under the freshwater action plan, of the $650 million, we see that only $420 million has been allocated. That leaves less than $230 million for the rest of the country and those other priority river basins. It's just woefully inadequate as the amount that is needed to make meaningful and lasting changes to get ahead of the crises we're seeing.