<
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/fresh-water-great-lakes-guilbeault-1.6800069>
'The federal government says it's making Canada's largest investment ever in
protecting the nation's sources of fresh water — including the Great Lakes.
Commitments announced by the government during U.S. President Joe Biden's visit
and in the recent budget bring the federal government's total investment to
$750 million, said Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.
"[It brings] us very close to our commitment to invest $1 billion ... in this
mandate. So we're not quite there yet," he told CBC News.
The government announced during Biden's visit it will be spending $420 million
to clean up and restore the Great Lakes. That money is part of the $750 million
total.
During the 2021 election campaign, the Liberals committed to spending more than
$1 billion over ten years to protect and restore freshwater bodies, including
rivers, large lakes and the Great Lakes.
Last week's budget earmarked $650 million over ten years for the Fraser River,
the Mackenzie River, Lake Winnipeg, the Lake of the Woods, Lake Simcoe, the St.
Lawrence River and the Great Lakes.
The money is intended to support monitoring, assessment and restoration work,
to prevent the release of harmful chemicals and to reduce the frequency of
algae blooms.
Canada's freshwater sources face ongoing threats from plastic and toxic
chemical pollution, algae blooms from excessive agricultural fertilizer runoff,
and invasive species. In the Prairies, they're threatened by shrinking glaciers
and drought.
These threats affect plant and aquatic life and the communities that rely on
these bodies of water for drinking water and recreation. Canada is home to 20
per cent of the planet's supply of fresh water; Guilbeault said Canada hasn't
always lived up to the responsibility.
And he admits Canada needs to catch up to U.S. investments in freshwater source
protection and restoration.'
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-heart-united-states-democracy-uruguay-nature-rights-ecuador/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
