2023-Mar-28
Canada Commits $420 Million over 10 Years to Protect the Great Lakes
President Joe Biden’s first official visit to Canada reaffirmed the Canada-US binational commitment to protect our shared waterways, biodiversity and fragile ecosystems. In a joint statement, the two leaders committed to “preserving and restoring our shared national treasure, the Great Lakes”.
Prime Minister Trudeau announced on Friday that Canada has committed $420 million in funding over the next 10 years as part of a shared responsibility to preserve and restore the waters of the Great Lakes. This investment will focus on cleaning up pollution hot spots and efforts to stop harmful chemicals and agricultural run-off from entering Great Lakes waters, but falls short of the $1 billion over 10 years requested by the Action Plan 2030 coalition, which GBA has been supporting, see: https://georgianbay.ca/action-plan-2030/. This plan was recently reinforced by the Great Lakes & St Lawrence Cities Initiative, see: https://glslcities.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Cities-Initiative-NR-Summit-on-Fresh-Water.pdf.
In 2021, the US committed $1 billion for cleanup and restoration initiatives, which is the largest single investment in Great Lakes history.
The joint statement also highlighted several clean energy initiatives that both countries are undertaking to reduce carbon emissions and fight climate change.
Read Prime Minister Trudeau and President Biden Joint Statement here.