Lake Simcoe Protection Plan
Aside from the Great Lakes, Lake Simcoe is Ontario’s largest inland lake. The Lake Simcoe watershed is a mix of agricultural, natural and urban lands and is considered a prime cottage and fishing destination. During the 1970s, the health of the lake began to deteriorate, notably impairing the ability for lake trout and other cold water fish species to reproduce naturally. In June 2009, the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) finalized the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan (LSPP or the “Plan”), established under the Lake Simcoe Protection Act, 2008 (LSPA), to address water quality concerns and other threats to the watershed. The plan includes a range of targets, indicators and 119 policies aimed at protecting and restoring the ecological health of the watershed.
Contents |
Description of the Lake Simcoe Watershed
The Lake Simcoe watershed contains a portion of the Oak Ridges Moraine (regulated under the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act, 2001) and the provincially designated Greenbelt (regulated under the Greenbelt Act, 2005). Because of its proximity to Toronto, the watershed is under intense development pressures. Agricultural and natural lands north of the Greenbelt are currently being converted to residential and urban lands. In the last 20 years, the population in the watershed has grown substantially and is anticipated to further increase as a direct result of the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe under the Places to Grow Act, 2005.
Lake Simcoe in its pristine state is a natural oligotrophic lake (i.e., a clear lake that is low in nutrients and algal growth, but high in dissolved oxygen); its fish community has 55 cold, cool and warm water species.
Phosphorus occurs naturally in water bodies and is an essential element for all living things. However, increased phosphorus loadings into a water body feeds algal blooms and increases aquatic plant growth, a process known as eutrophication. Increased phosphorus loading causes dissolved oxygen concentrations to decrease in the bottom layer of a water body in the summer, which starve cold water fish of oxygen and create “dead zones”. Extensive phosphorus loading during the 1970s to 1990s led to eutrophication and hypoxic conditions (low dissolved oxygen levels) in the deep waters of Lake Simcoe.
Lake trout and other cold water species depend on cold, well-oxygenated water (greater than 7 mg/L of dissolved oxygen), particularly in the summer months, to swim, feed and grow. Natural recruitment of cold water fish species, such as lake trout, lake whitefish and lake herring, began to decline in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, respectively. Lake trout and lake whitefish populations are maintained or supplemented through hatchery stocking programs. Since 2001, several wild juvenile lake trout have been captured and natural recruitment of lake whitefish and lake herring populations have also occurred. Lake trout, as a top predator, is essential to maintaining the structure of the aquatic community in Lake Simcoe. Hatchery lake trout are currently the dominant predator in Lake Simcoe and have reduced the abundance of rainbow smelt and probably lake herring. Without lake trout, stocked or wild, the fish community would restructure in an undesirable way.
The Lake Simcoe Environmental Management Strategy, a multi-partner program, began in 1990 to identify, measure and reduce the sources of phosphorus entering Lake Simcoe. Through a number of initiatives, such as agricultural and urban water quality improvement projects, the strategy was successful at reducing phosphorus loadings in the watershed. Despite the success of the strategy, phosphorus loadings must be reduced even further to improve the ecological health of the watershed and to maintain a native self-sustaining cold water fish community.
In response, MOE passed the LSPA in December 2008 to “protect and restore the ecological health of the Lake Simcoe watershed.” In addition to requiring the creation of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan, the Act also establishes a Lake Simcoe Science Committee and a Lake Simcoe Coordinating Committee. The ECO reviewed the LSPA in our 2008/2009 Annual Report (see Lake Simcoe: The Province Steps In).
What is a Watershed?
The LSPP is unlike any other legislated land use plan in the province – it is based on a watershed boundary. A watershed is the catchment area, including both land and water areas, drained by a watercourse and its tributaries. A watershed is a linear directional system – downstream is an integration of all that happens upstream. By planning at this scale, instead of by political boundaries, land use planners can identify harmful and cumulative impacts to the watershed so that prevention, remediation or improvements can be made at a local level.
Integrated watershed management is the process of managing human activities and natural resources in an area defined by watershed boundaries. Conservation authorities (CAs), as established under the Conservation Authorities Act, are organized on a watershed basis, and approximately two-thirds of CAs have or are carrying out watershed studies or plans in the province. There is no comprehensive water policy or legislation in Ontario that guides integrated watershed management planning. As a result, interpretation of policies and implementation of integrated watershed management plans vary across the province.
| First Steps: Implementing the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan |
|---|
| In February 2010, MOE posted three proposals on the Environmental Registry to facilitate the implementation of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan (LSPP): the phosphorus reduction strategy; the water quality trading feasibility study; and a discussion paper on the shoreline regulation (Environmental Registry #010-8986, #010-8989, and #010-9107, respectively). MOE identified potential amendments to the Plan related to the implementation of the phosphorus reduction strategy, to revise timing for delivery of select strategic action policies, and for administrative purposes.
The Lake Simcoe Phosphorus Reduction Strategy was developed by MOE and a multi-agency team. The strategy sets sector specific targets, proportionally based on their current phosphorus loading contributions. Currently, phosphorus loadings to Lake Simcoe come from watershed streams (including runoff from agriculture and urban areas) (56 per cent), the atmosphere (27 per cent), sewage treatment plants (7 per cent), septic systems (6 per cent), and the Holland Marsh and former wetlands that were drained for agricultural use (4 per cent). MOE predicts that if all reductions are implemented successfully, annual phosphorus loadings would be reduced from 71.5 tonnes per year (2006–2007) to about 58 tonnes per year by 2045 – a shortfall of approximately 14 tonnes from the LSPP’s long-term target of 44 tonnes per year. In July 2010, MOE finalized the phosphorus reduction strategy and announced that it would further evaluate a number of issues related to water quality trading in Lake Simcoe. The ECO may report on these initiatives in a future Annual Report. |
Implications of the Decision
Legal Effect of the Plan
Generally, policies define which agencies are responsible for their implementation (e.g., ministries, CAs and municipalities) and meeting the delivery timelines. Eighty-eight of these policies have commitments to be delivered by June 2010. The policies are divided into four categories:
- Designated – decisions made under the Planning Act, Condominium Act, 1998 and decisions related to prescribed instruments must conform with these policies (e.g., major development applications must be accompanied by a stormwater management plan);
- Have regard to – decision made under the Planning Act, Condominium Act, 1998, and decisions related to prescribed instrument must have regard to these policies (e.g., when approving development along the Lake Simcoe shoreline, municipalities should ensure that public access is maintained);
- Monitoring – policies commit public bodies such as ministries, municipalities, and conservation authorities to implement monitoring programs (e.g., by 2011 the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (LSRCA) and MOE will develop a monitoring program for natural heritage and hydrological features’ targets and indicators); and
- Strategic action – are legally non-binding and include policies related to research, stewardship, education and outreach and best management practices (e.g., by 2011 MNR, LSRCA and MOE will delineate priority areas for riparian restoration).
Conformity is subject to transitional rules set in the General Regulation (O. Reg. 219/09) under the LSPA.
Prescribed instruments are defined in O. Reg. 219/09. These include sewage works approvals under the Ontario Water Resources Act', permission under the Conservation Authorities Act, Public Lands Act approvals, and Lakes and Rivers Improvement Act approvals. A decision made by a public body to issue a new prescribed instrument, or to renew or amend an existing prescribed instrument must conform to designated policies in the plan and have regard to other applicable policies.
Plan Policies and Targets
The Plan is organized into chapters that deal with specific policy themes – aquatic life, water quality, water quantity, shorelines and natural heritage, other threats and activities (i.e., invasive species, climate change and recreational activities), and implementation. Each chapter contains targets, indicators and policies. Some of the key targets include:
- To reduce phosphorus loadings to 44 tonnes per year into Lake Simcoe to achieve a dissolved oxygen concentration of 7 mg/L (the aquatic life target conditions necessary to restore a native self-sustaining coldwater fish community).
- To achieve a minimum 40 per cent high quality natural vegetative cover in the watershed.
To avoid duplication, some of the policies, such as key natural heritage and key hydrological features policies, only apply to areas of the watershed that are outside of the Greenbelt Plan or Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan area. The following table provides a summary of key natural heritage and key hydrological features policies within the LSPP and compares these policies to the Greenbelt Plan and the Oak Ridges Moraine Protection Plan. Where uses are permitted, these uses may be subject to requirements contained in each of the plans. Interested readers should consult each plan to learn about any requirements.
Table 1 Natural Heritage Policies in the Lake Simcoe Watershed
| Existing or Proposed Land Use | Greenbelt Plan Natural Heritage System (Policy Overlay) | Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan Natural Core Areas (Land Use Designation) | Lake Simcoe Protection Plan Key Natural Heritage and Key Hydrologic Features (Policy Overlay) |
|---|---|---|---|
| New mineral aggregate extraction operations | YES1 | NO | YES |
| Expansion of existing mineral aggregate extraction operations | YES | NO2 | YES |
| Major recreational uses (e.g., ski hills, golf courses, serviced campgrounds) | YES | NO3 | NO3 |
| New waste management facilities (e.g., landfills, incinerators) | YES | NO | YES |
| Power transmission corridors | YES | YES | YES |
| Transportation infrastructure (e.g., public highways) | YES | YES | YES |
| Human settlement area expansion | NO | NO | NO |
| Agricultural uses (existing and new) | YES | YES | YES |
| Water taking | YES | YES | YES |
| Forest management (including wood harvesting) | YES | YES | YES |
- 1 except in significant wetlands, significant woodlands unless the woodland is occupied by young plantation or early successional habitat, & significant habitat of endangered species & threatened species
- 2 not beyond boundary of area under licence or permit
- 3 only low intensity recreational uses permitted
Advisory Committees
During the development of the LSPA and the strategy to protect Lake Simcoe, the provincial government appointed two advisory committees: the Lake Simcoe Science Advisory Committee and the Lake Simcoe Stakeholder Advisory Committee. The Science Advisory Committee submitted a report to the Minister of the Environment in October 2008 that identified the state of the lake and its tributaries, pressures on the watershed, ecosystem features that should be protected, and advice on appropriate management of the watershed.
The LSPA established two new advisory committees to replace the Science and Stakeholder Advisor Committees; the Lake Simcoe Science Committee and the Lake Simcoe Coordinating Committee. The nine-member Lake Simcoe Science Committee was appointed in March 2010. MOE identified that the committee’s first tasks will be to provide advice on the phosphorus reduction strategy, water quality trading and the shoreline regulation. The 12-member Lake Simcoe Coordinating Committee was appointed by the Minister of the Environment in May 2010. MOE identified that the committee will provide input to the policies and measures developed as part of the LSPP, as well as monitor the Plan’s implementation and make recommendations for the long-term strategy.
ECO Comment
The ECO commends the Ontario government for affording additional protection to the Lake Simcoe watershed through the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan. The Plan is ambitious in its targets and policies, as well as in the timeframes set forth to meet the objectives and priorities of the Plan, such as protecting and restoring the ecological health of the Lake Simcoe watershed. The ECO is pleased that the phosphorus, dissolved oxygen and natural cover targets are consistent with the Lake Simcoe Advisory Committee’s recommendations. However, the ECO notes that the Plan is inconsistent with the Lake Simcoe Advisory Committee’s recommendation to protect all wetlands within the watershed, not just those wetlands identified as provincially significant by MNR. For example, new aggregate operations are allowed in non-provincially significant wetlands, with some conditions. Protection at the “provincially significant” level may be appropriate for the Provincial Policy Statement; however, regional watershed plans should be sensitive to the structure and function of wetlands that are smaller scale and have features which may be important locally.
The ECO is generally pleased with the functions of the Science and Coordinating Committees and the roles both will play in implementing the Plan, such as providing advice on research initiatives and Plan amendments. However, the ECO is concerned that the Science and Coordinating Committees were appointed and began to meet after the shoreline protection discussion paper, Plan amendments, phosphorus reduction strategy and water quality trading feasibility study proposals were posted on the Environmental Registry. Although MOE received advice from both committees before finalizing the phosphorus reduction strategy and deciding to further evaluate water quality trading in Lake Simcoe, the ECO believes that both committees should have been in place and provided advice to MOE during the drafting stage. The ECO encourages MOE to fully involve both committees in implementing any relevant aspects of the Plan from this point forward, for example, in developing the subwatershed guidelines or suggesting any further Plan amendments.
The ECO questions whether the policies aimed at protecting key natural heritage features, key hydrological features and shorelines, while providing more protection than the PPS, go far enough. At first glance, the Plan prohibits “development” and “site alteration” within and around these sensitive features. However, upon closer inspection there are many exemptions, with or without conditions that would allow questionable activities in these sensitive features that could compromise the objectives of the Plan. For example, infrastructure, including landfills and roads, are allowed within key natural heritage and key hydrological features provided the project has been demonstrated through an environmental assessment and there is no reasonable alternative. Also, new septic systems are permitted within 100 metres of the Lake Simcoe shoreline if it serves an agricultural use or a public open space, it replaces or expands the capacity of an existing system, or it services only one dwelling. The ECO cautions that the devil’s in the details of the policies and how they are implemented on the ground. The ECO does not believe that the Plan is the “gold standard of sustainability,” as the Minister of the Environment has claimed. Some policies are vague and simply provide more hoops for developers to jump through. It would have been simpler and more effective to conserve natural heritage, hydrological and shoreline features through development prohibitions.
The ECO recognises that the watershed is currently under great development pressure and acknowledges MOE’s swift action to create and begin to implement the LSPA and the Plan. Although the health Lake Simcoe’s watershed began to decline in the 1970s, the ECO notes that the Ontario government is trying to fix a problem it may have contributed to, through growth targets established in the Growth Plan under the Places to Grow Act. Since the south-eastern portion of the watershed is within the Greenbelt, development has been leapfrogging north along highway 400. For example, the proposed Simcoe area growth strategy increases the combined populations of the City of Barrie and the City of Orillia by 52 per cent or 86,100 people by the year 2031, compared to the 2006 census. The City of Barrie (through the Barrie-Innisfil Boundary Adjustment Act, 2009) had its boundary expanded by the Province into agricultural lands of Innisfil to accommodate growth.
Simcoe County, located in the western portion of the watershed, was not included in the Greenbelt planning area but is partially covered by the LSPP area. An important policy of the Greenbelt Plan is not included in the LSPP: the extensions to or expansions of Great Lakes or Lake Simcoe water or sewer services to settlements that are not connected is prohibited, except to address human health concerns. This policy restricts the growth of inland communities to within their local environmental carrying capacity and reserves water services from Lake Simcoe and the Great Lakes for communities located on the shorelines. The ECO strongly encourages the Ontario government to ensure that development does not leapfrog into the Lake Simcoe watershed and add additional stress to this already fragile ecosystem. This problem could be remedied in one of two ways by the Province: the Greenbelt should be expanded into Simcoe County or the LSPP should be amended to address this concern.
The ECO has commented in past annual reports that the need for site or landscape-level legislation and plans clearly indicates that Ontario’s land use planning system (i.e., the Planning Act and the Provincial Policy Statement) is failing to protect ecosystem features and functions. While the ECO commends the provincial government for these additional measures, often such measures come too late – once the environment has been degraded to a point of great concern. Rather than implementing measures to fix specific environmental degradation after it has occurred, the government should focus on conserving and protecting all our wildlife, wetlands, forests, lakes and rivers before they are degraded. Integrated watershed management, currently practiced by most conservation authorities, is an excellent example of how natural landscape features can be conserved and protected in Ontario’s land use planning context. The ECO believes that the Provincial Policy Statement should be amended to ensure that sufficient protection is provided to all of Ontario’s ecologically and hydrologically significant features through integrated watershed management planning. In addition, the Ontario government should create a comprehensive water policy to consistently guide integrated watershed management planning, to be implemented by conservation authorities, across the province.
| Recommendation 8:
The ECO recommends that the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing amend the Provincial Policy Statement to require integrated watershed management planning. |
| Previous section: High Traffic Areas in Sudbury |
| Next section: The Drainage Act: Drying up Ontario’s Wetlands |
| This is an article from the 2009/10 Annual Report to the Legislature from the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. |
Citing This Article:
Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. 2010. "A Watershed Moment? Ontario Introduces the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan." Redefining Conservation, ECO Annual Report, 2009/10. Toronto, ON : Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. 101-108.
