Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank the member for Niagara Centre again for the question.
I would also be remiss if I didn't thank the member from Vimy. I forgot to thank her for participating in our mid-year meeting. I believe it was in January when she had just taken on the portfolio of parliamentary secretary for transport. We appreciated her participation at that meeting and entertaining our board members' questions.
With respect to the Canada water agency, absolutely, an agency that looks at freshwater questions and interior water questions from a triple bottom line approach will ensure its success. Getting buy-in from not only the environmental community, but also the business community would build what I would call a multi-partisan endorsement or support for such an agency.
Understanding that there's also a national adaptation strategy under development by the federal government, there's certainly an important role for the Canada water agency to play with respect to climate adaptation, especially when we look at shoreline resilience. We would hope to see that as part of the mandate.
Given the importance of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River, not only to our economy.... If it were to be considered its own country, it would be the third-largest economy in the world, with around $7 trillion in economic activity every year. It's also the source of 20% of the world's surface fresh water. It's a source of drinking water for 40 million Canadians and Americans. It's also a shared resource with our neighbours to the south. That's why we're proud to be a binational organization.
Absolutely, having that approach will ensure that we're making the right investments that will yield environmental benefits and also socio-economic benefits.
We're seeing that in the U.S. with their Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, or the GLRI program, which we would like to see adopted and adapted up here in Canada with also a significant level of investment. For every dollar invested in the GLRI, we're seeing approximately a three-dollar payback for those coastal communities that are seeing those GLRI investments.
We're seeing that sound environmental investments targeted towards the right actions—whether that's remediating our waterways or our shorelines, which do have a water quality impact, a quality of life impact and an impact on municipal infrastructure—will yield very large economic results.
I hope that answers the question.