Feds offer $11 million for Lake Winnipeg cleanup
Federal Environment Minister John Baird announced $11 million in new federal funding over the next five years to deal with pollution and other problems on Lake Winnipeg.
Baird described Lake Winnipeg Wednesday as one of "Canada's great lakes" — but it isn't in great shape.
Years of study have shown the lake is overloaded with phosphorus and nitrogen from farm and municipal waste, which contribute to the growth of huge tracts of algae that rob the lake of oxygen, killing fish, fouling beaches and producing harmful toxins.
Baird said the time for studying the lake's condition is over. The new money will be used to study the best ways to clean the lake.
The federal government had previously announced it would contribute $7 million to fixing the lake, bringing the total to $18 million over five years.
About $13 million of that will go to Environment Canada to allow scientists to examine how nutrient contributions can be controlled in the watershed and how nutrients affect the ecology of the lake.
"Environment Canada, through their research team, will be concentrating even more science onto the lake to ensure that what we decide to do with our infrastructure dollars are being targeted properly," said James Bezan, Conservative MP for Selkirk-Interlake, who also attended the announcement at The Forks national historic site in Winnipeg.
The government will also create a new water stewardship fund for the Lake Winnipeg basin, which will be used to support projects that focus on reducing nutrient loads in the lake "through actions taken by stakeholder and community groups."
Federal officials hope the money will help restore the ecological integrity of the lake, reduce algae blooms, and help protect beaches, the fishery and recreation on the lake.
Money not enough, say opposition MPs
Pat Martin, NDP MP for Winnipeg Centre, said the $18 million is not enough to tackle Lake Winnipeg's problems, especially compared to a recent pledge of $12 million in federal aid for Lake Simcoe.
"If a little mud puddle like Lake Simcoe, by comparison, gets $12 million in voter-rich Ontario and we get $18 million over five years for the sixth-largest lake in Canada, what does that tell you?" he said.
"We're in crisis. I'm not sure the same degree of crisis exists in Lake Simcoe. We have the largest freshwater fishery in North America at risk here, and there's not even a commercial fishery in Lake Simcoe."
The federal government should ban phosphates, which would not cost taxpayers anything, Martin said.
Federal Liberals also scoffed at the plan, noting that during the last election, their party committed $120 million over 10 years to clean up the lake and reduce harmful pollutants to pre-1970 levels.
"Lake Winnipeg requires urgent attention," Winnipeg South Centre MP Anita Neville said in a release. "This government must stop playing politics with the environment. Someone needs to stand up for Manitoba."
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2007/11/07/lake-winnipeg.html