Environment committee  Yes, that's right. I can't improve on that.

Environment committee  The answer to that is yes. I'd be glad to drop you a line that gives you a more detailed explanation of where we're going with it. It's very scientific. I'd like to have the scientists around our shop weigh in a bit on it. Certainly we can demonstrate for you that we understand

Environment committee  Yes.

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

Environment committee  I think what you're trying to say is that with the advent of climate change, and perhaps the temperature rise, two degrees would be substantial. I think probably in the last 30 or 40 years, there's been an increase of about one degree, or three-quarters of one degree, on surface

Environment committee  We are doing something called our SPARROW model. Don't ask me to tell you exactly what SPARROW stands for. In essence, it's a measurement that links water quality with the historic data of the water flow and the nutrient loading to be better able to estimate the cumulative effect

Environment committee  We are developing models with—

Environment committee  Yes. When I say “we are”—

Environment committee  —that's Environment Canada's scientists and the EPA, Environmental Protection Agency in the United States, are involved in this, and of course the corps of engineers. But developing the model—

Environment committee  No. Modelling has been going on for years, but better and better modelling is our key initiative. We now have to appreciate.... For instance, the climate change issue is something that probably has been fully recognized in the past dozen years and probably was paid little attent

Environment committee  Yes, I'd like to think that. It's also a bit like forecasting the weather. Sometimes the best thing we can use is the Farmers’ Almanac. We can develop the models, but again, it's a model and not the actual. Our best evidence, invariably, has been whatever the previous year was,

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  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