When nature calls for help, give it a hand before it's too late.
That was the overarching message coming from Lake Simcoe advocates and Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas NDP MPP Sandy Shaw at Queen’s Park in Toronto March 21. In recognition of today’s World Water Day, Shaw — the official Opposition critic for environment, conservation and parks — tabled a motion in the Ontario legislature Thursday calling for the immediate implementation of a protection strategy to clean up the watershed.
“We’re here to focus on a really important issue,” she said. “We should be concerned and thinking about water every day. Water is life. Protection means so much to all of us, whether it is safe, clean drinking water (or) lakes where we can enjoy summer swimming, winter cold-water ice fishing, or simply ... the views when they are clean and clear and not covered in the green algae blooms affecting so many across Ontario, including Lake Simcoe.”
Shaw’s motion calls for three key actions:
- The implementation of 2008’s Lake Simcoe Protection Act, with a target of reducing phosphorus loads to 44 tonnes per year by 2030.
- Evaluate the future environmental and water-quality implications of the proposed Bradford Bypass and accompanying sprawl on the lake and its tributaries.
- Begin work on a phosphorus-reduction facility before the end of 2024.
Shaw noted the multiple Progressive Conservative MPPs and cabinet ministers who serve the watershed.
“They could get action going in a heartbeat,” she said. “Everyone’s tired of seeing preformative gestures and empty words. We don’t see the action and the sense of urgency we need. We can only conclude this is a lack of will on the part of this government to clean up Lake Simcoe.”
Barrie-Innisfil MPP and current Environment, Conservation and Parks Minister Andrea Khanjin declined an interview request. However, the province has in the past committed to funding projects that improve the lake’s health.
In a media conference held Thursday, Shaw was flanked by advocates, including Lake Simcoe Watch chair Jack Gibbons.
“Unfortunately, the province still hasn’t developed a plan to achieve its (phosphorus) target,” he said. “As a result, pollution has gone up by 25 per cent. It is now time for Doug Ford to get it done.”
Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition executive director Margaret Prophet, who was there, too, suggested the government’s decisions to limit conservation authority powers and move ahead with projects like the bypass risk a “pollution crisis no amount of money could fix” within the lake.
“The people that steward Lake Simcoe and the regional waters are highly concerned about the negligence this government displays toward … water at-large,” she said. “Lake Simcoe’s a provincial treasure.”
Shaw called the government’s upcoming budget, which is expected to be introduced next week, an “opportunity for action” and the chance for “real investment in water protection.”
