By Doug Draper
A glimpse of our lower Great Lakes, with our greater Niagara region nestled between Lakes Erie and Ontario, from space.
Environmental Defense, a citizens group based in Toronto, is asking all of us toprovide feedback to Ontario Environment Minister Jim Bradley and theprovince’s Liberal government by this August 7 on anything we would like to see changed in the government’s milestone Great Lakes Protection Act.
“Generally we like the act and strategy, but there is always room for improvement,” said the group’s water program manager Claire Malcolmson in a recent news release. Among the things in the act, unveiled for public review this past June, the group would like to see ramped up is more concrete actions for protecting and improving water quality, wetlands, beaches and shorelines. It would also like to see First Nations and Metis people given more say in decision making around Great Lakes protection actions.
While a number of Canadian and American Great Lakes group have praised the Ontario act since its unveiling this spring, Malcolmson says “we need to make sure the act is strong enough to protect the Great Lakes’ wild species and human inhabitians from current and future stresses.”
Malcolmson calls the act and any improvements that can be made to it possibly “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to stop polluting and to start restoring the source of drinking water for 80 per cent of Ontarians.”
You can click on the following link to find out more about the Ontario Great Lakes Protection Act and to find out how you can send any message you may wish to send to the Ontario government on this important piece of legislation by this August 7 – <http://environmentaldefence.us4.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=2117f6f873721e20b14d2f4ff&id=94e05eeb7b&e=002344e302>
(You can also share any of your views on the province’s Great Lakes protection legislation below. Remember that NAL only posts views by individuals who are also willing to share their first and last name.)
Niagara At Large 
I would hope that when the act looks at wetlands that it also refers to the upper whtersheds of all the creeks and rivers that enter the Great lakes. Without increasing the vegetative buffers that ensconce our ..watersheds they are nothing but conveyer belts for silt lode and chemical pollution as well animal and human untreated waste. It should also be looked at as possible source of employment oppurtunities for our youth because of the light footprint required when incorporating BIO ENGINEERING projects to prevent the pollution from entering our watersheds . After they are built these vegetative buffers provide protection of our watersheds from land use operations and once again turn our creeks into natural filtration systems!
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