Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to speak in support of Motion No. 161. I am very pleased that the member for Simcoe North is putting forward this motion. It is important that the people of Simcoe North understand the important work their member is doing. I can certainly commend him to his constituents for doing some very good work on their behalf in the House. This motion is no exception.
The motion calls on the government, specifically the Minister of the Environment, to consider evaluating the future of an asset that is truly important to the people of Ontario and Canada: the Trent-Severn Waterway. This is a national historic site that belongs to all Canadians and is managed for them by their federal government, specifically the Parks Canada Agency.
I am a history major and I know that the Trent-Severn Waterway was originally conceived as a way to facilitate commercial navigation from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron. In fact, the House may be surprised and pleased to know that its first lock was built of wood in 1833, when early loggers were exploiting vast stands of white pine in the region.
While the waterway was first managed for commercial navigation, recreational uses became more and more prominent over the years. Today, residential, cottage, municipal and tourism growth along the waterway corridor has added a broad range of management needs and responsibilities that the early builders never contemplated.
Today the waterway is vitally important to the more than one million Canadians who live in its 18,600 square kilometre watershed. It is also a piece of living Canadian cultural, social and economic history. It stretches for 386 kilometres, linking the Bay of Quinte and Lake Ontario with Lake Simcoe, Georgian Bay and Lake Huron.
In addition to the economic importance of tourism, there are approximately 50 communities located along its course, everything from tiny hamlets, towns and villages to cities like Peterborough, Trenton, Orillia and Lindsay. As different as these varied communities are in size and nature, they have one thing in common. Without the rivers, lakes and man-made features that comprise the Trent-Severn Waterway, they would not exist. The sustainability of the waterway, therefore, is vital to the sustainability of these communities.
The word “sustainability” is very popular these days. It is almost a buzzword, so to speak, and it is not only used but misused. But with regard to the Trent-Severn, I think it is entirely accurate to talk about sustainability, both for the waterway itself and for the communities that rely upon it. Without a sustainable waterway, it would be impossible to have sustainable communities.
According to the Centre for Sustainable Community Development:
A sustainable community uses its resources to meet current needs while ensuring that adequate resources are available for future generations. It seeks a better quality of life for all its residents while maintaining nature's ability to function over time by minimizing waste, preventing pollution, promoting efficiency and developing local resources to revitalize the local economy... A sustainable community resembles a living system in which human, natural and economic elements are interdependent and draw strength from each other.
The motion before us today addresses the well-being and long term sustainability of the Trent-Severn Waterway directly. It states that the government should consider the future of the waterway in ways that are specific, yet interlinked. These would include its uses as a recreational asset, a world-class destination for pleasure boaters, a source of clean, renewable electric power, a facilitator of economic opportunity and renewal for the many communities along its great length, and, perhaps most important of all, a model for environmental sustainability.
It goes without saying that as a national historic site of Canada the Trent-Severn Waterway must be preserved for present and future generations of Canadians. Parks Canada is to be commended, I think, for the excellent job it is doing in this regard under its present mandate.
In addition to the waterway's role as a treasured asset of the Canadian people, however, it also functions as the very lifeblood of more than 50 communities. If it is not sustainable, neither are they, in the fullest sense. These communities depend on the waterway for their supplies of clean, fresh water, but also for much more.
The Trent-Severn provides clean, renewable hydroelectricity and is a source of economic opportunity. It provides wonderful recreational opportunities and I think it is important to know, too, that caring for the waterway is the bedrock of the region's social and community values. In short, the need to care for the waterway and that which needs to be done to ensure its long term health and viability provide a road map, pointing the way to the goal of having sustainable communities.
Unfortunately, the long term sustainability of the waterway is at risk due to the deterioration of its aging infrastructure and a regulatory and governance regime put in place long ago. This regime has not evolved to suit the present multi-faceted role of the waterway and the many differing federal, provincial and municipal responsibilities for it.
These responsibilities include the management of a complex water regime that ensures water for navigation, as well as allocating increasingly scarce water resources to many competing demands, and it include the provision of municipal and domestic water supplies. There are also requirements to protect water quality, preserve species at risk and natural resources, control damaging floods, and ensure the provision of renewable energy through hydroelectric generation.
Unfortunately, work done by Parks Canada indicates that in some ways the sustainability of the waterway and its communities is in question.
Approximately 1.5 million people from across Canada and around the world visit the waterway as tourists every year. Many thousands more come by boat. Over 100,000 people now own property along the shores of the waterway. It has experienced exponential residential, cottage, municipal and tourism growth along the waterway corridor and around the shores of dozens of lakes.
Potential threats to the long term sustainability of the waterway include the deterioration of its dams and locks, which need substantial investment to remain safe and functional. There are also issues that are even more difficult to get a handle on, including fertilizer runoff, phosphorous enrichment, pollution caused by excessive plant nutrients, overdevelopment, and habitat loss.
Trends in some parts of the waterway, such as Pigeon Lake, for example, indicate that phosphorous enrichment is on the rise, presenting long term problems. The trend in Pigeon Lake shows that water quality is decreasing.
Needless to say, the greater the human footprint, the less space left for wildlife habitat. Road density within the watershed is also increasing, fragmenting habitats and creating barriers to wildlife movement.
Fortunately, the Trent-Severn communities are well aware of these problems. Eighty per cent of the lakes within the system have set up associations and there are an additional 11 associations on the major connecting rivers. The Federation of Ontario Cottagers' Associations is one of the largest such groups doing excellent work. There is a wide array of stewardship interests doing encouraging activities focusing on environmental issues and the sustainability of the waterway.
There are so many reasons why the motion before us could represent an important breakthrough, and I think we have articulated a number of them. We need to build sustainable communities, not just along the Trent-Severn but across Canada. I think the motion before the House will provide a blueprint for how to begin to address some of the challenges to genuine sustainability that desperately need attention.
That is why I am encouraging my colleagues in the House to vote in favour of the motion. Afterward, with a successful result, we will encourage the minister to get on with a very important review.
Once again, I commend the member for Simcoe North for a valuable motion put before the House.