Environment committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm Gordon Walker, acting chair of the Canadian section of the International Joint Commission. Two of our staff people are here today, our secretary, Camille Mageau, and Nick Heisler, senior adviser. With your permission, they will answer any questions

Environment committee  It's an appropriate place for me to stop.

Environment committee  Certainly, Mr. Carrie, the renewed agreement, the updated agreement, which in many respects has a number of changes, reflects a much more modern approach to be taken. The IJC has a number of responsibilities that flow from the actual Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, particula

Environment committee  Well, that's not our job. I think we sort of say that we suggest they put—

Environment committee  Yes.

Environment committee  This is like putting the ship in the bottle, but it's up to you to put the ship in the bottle. We believe that it's possible to do. In fact, we're very strong on all of the Great Lakes having more wetland acres. We're going to be strong on that in the future. In other areas, we'r

Environment committee  Wetlands are something of a canary in the mine shaft. The wetlands are able to produce the kinds of water species, the kinds of growing species—flora and fauna—that are important to restore the shoreline and also to restore and replenish the birds, to restore and replenish the an

Environment committee  Climate change is huge for all of us, and none of us in this room could likely say that they haven't seen the impact of climate change, such as more moderate winters, although I can't say that about right now. We've had a pretty impressive winter, and just two weeks ago 90% of th

Environment committee  Whenever people are involved, a population getting involved with the Great Lakes.... In the areas of concern that we have, the hotspots around the Great Lakes, the remedial action plans are populated almost entirely by volunteers, by people who are participating in helping to sol

Environment committee  I sure hope so.

Environment committee  Well, they've made it look prettier. Zebra mussels have cleaned up things an awful lot. I've often crossed the bridge over the Detroit River and the St. Clair River. If you crossed it in 1970, it was a pretty grey-looking body and today it's a very bright effervescent blue. So th

Environment committee  I think that's a pretty good summation. It wasn't one thing; there were many things. The Cuyahoga River was on fire, if you can imagine that, in the late 1960s. There were lots of issues. That obviously was not phosphorous. At the same time, the fishing industry was dying, and

Environment committee  They're supportive, but they are only.... Take the rivers that service, let's say, southwestern Ontario, such as the Thames River, 200 kilometres or so of that, and the Grand River right up almost to Orangeville and down to Dunnville, where it goes into the lake; those systems a

Environment committee  Yes. It's difficult to put a number on it, but they're just a tiny fraction—a big difference.

Environment committee  Yes, floods create a huge problem because they are not very controlled. By their very nature, they sweep up far too much and bring into the system that which is not intended to be in it, including an awful lot of fertilizer and an awful lot of other stuff as well that will impair