Canada-Ontario Agreement Respecting the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem 2007
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Description
The Canada-Ontario Agreement Respecting the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem (COA) is a framework for implementing Canada’s commitments under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA). In January 2007, the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) posted a proposal notice on the Environmental Registry regarding the renewal of COA for a three-year term and potential changes to its Annexes. In March 2007, MOE posted the draft 2007 COA for public comment. The official signing of the Agreement was announced on August 16, 2007. The agreement came into effect on June 26, 2007.
The 2007 COA is guided by the vision of a “healthy, prosperous and sustainable Great Lakes Basin for present and future generations.” Through its four Annexes, the Agreement establishes the priorities and goals for the environmental protection and rehabilitation of the Great Lakes over its three-year term. Both governments committed to completing a review of COA by November 27, 2009.
(For a detailed review of COA please refer to 2007 Review of COA.)
Areas of Concern Annex
The Areas of Concern (AOC) Annex focuses on 15 Canadian AOCs suffering from pronounced environmental degradation or impairment of their aquatic beneficial uses. Since 1987, only two of Canada’s original 17 AOCs have been delisted. The 2007 Annex does not include AOC delisting, in itself, as a goal. Instead, it aims to complete priority actions that will lead to the delisting of four AOCs, and to make significant progress towards Remedial Action Plan implementation, environmental recovery and restoration of beneficial uses in the remaining 11 AOCs.
Harmful Pollutants Annex
The Harmful Pollutants Annex works towards the virtual elimination of legacy pollutants, such as PCBs, mercury, dioxins and furans, benzo(a)pyrene and hexachlorobenzene, as well as the reduction of ongoing sources of pollution, such as wastewater effluents and air pollutants. Other goals include reducing other harmful pollutants, and enhancing the knowledge necessary to reduce releases and mitigate risks.
Several planned results specify explicit reduction targets for legacy pollutants and criteria air pollutants. Other results, including the development of a program for the sound management of other chemical substances and the understanding of their impacts, do not mention targets, substances or sources.
Lake and Basin Sustainability Annex
The goals of this Annex are to promote sustainable management practices, to protect biodiversity, and to restore conditions in priority areas. An emphasis on stewardship is intended to: improve human well-being and aquatic ecosystem health; eliminate toxic substances and reduce pollutants; conserve genetic and biological diversity; and respond to invasive species. Two new areas of special focus are adaption to climate change and drinking water source protection.
Initiatives are applied on a basin-wide, lake-wide or watershed scale. Cooperative implementation between federal and provincial agencies and other Great Lakes partners is required to carry out commitments.
Coordination of Monitoring, Research and Information Annex
This Annex endeavours to undertake coordinated and efficient federal/provincial scientific monitoring and research, and to improve the collection and sharing of data, information and trends. These areas have been lacking in earlier agreements, making it difficult to evaluate initiatives or hold governments accountable.
ECO Comment
The ECO commends Ontario for signing the 2007 COA and reaffirming its commitment to rehabilitate and protect the Great Lakes basin ecosystem. The ECO has commented on preceding agreements in past reports, and remains concerned with the slow rate of progress, limited funding, minimal community engagement, and lack of transparency and accountability in meeting COA’s goals.
The ECO believes that public involvement in the negotiation and the implementation of the commitments has been lacking. We encourage MOE to establish a Great Lakes stakeholders forum to facilitate meaningful engagement. It is vital for both governments to involve and mobilize local stakeholders, municipalities and ministries to achieve results.
COA suffers from chronic underfunding. The funding committed thus far is no where near Environment Canada’s $3.5 billion estimate of funds needed to rectify problems that continue to impair beneficial uses in AOCs. The ECO commends Ontario for the additional funding it has contributed towards Randle Reef and the St. Lawrence River AOCs, but strongly urges Ontario to commit the necessary large-scale investments needed to restore beneficial uses in the remaining AOCs. The ECO also notes a persistent lack of transparency in the distribution of funds. It is still unclear how the millions of dollars Ontario pledged will be allocated and how the progress will be reported.
The ECO is concerned that many targets are not clearly defined and lack deadlines for achieving the results set forth in the Annexes. As such, it is difficult to ascertain objectively whether the signatories are meeting their commitments. The environmental problems that necessitated the drafting of the first COA persist, and are now compounded by other emerging pressures, such as climate change, increased development pressures and invasive species.
The ECO advises Ontario to draft, undertake consultation on, and implement detailed workplans with clear targets, timelines, sources of funding, and clearly articulated responsibilities for participating governments and stakeholders. This should be accompanied by a comprehensive results monitoring program, through which the information collected is made publicly available. In light of COA’s chronic shortcomings, the ECO also suggests that COA progress reports be subject to independent review.
| This is an article from the 2007/08 Annual Report to the Legislature from the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. |
Citing This Article:
Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. 2008. "Canada - Ontario Agreement Respecting the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem." Getting to K(No)w, ECO Annual Report, 2007-08. Toronto, ON : Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. 87-89.
