Protecting the Great Lakes

The importance of the Great Lakes

The Great Lakes help make Ontario a great place to live. Whether you love to fish, swim, boat, camp, play on a sandy beach with your kids or walk along a shoreline trail, Ontario’s Great Lakes support an ecosystem that is unique in the world.

These beautiful lakes are an unparalleled treasure — holding one-fifth of all the surface fresh water on Earth.

Most Ontarians live within the watersheds of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River system. We all benefit from the Great Lakes – their resources provide us with drinking water and energy, food and recreational opportunities. The Lakes also provide the province with numerous economic advantages.

The Great Lakes regional economy is the world’s 3^rd largest. Almost 50 per cent of Canada’s manufacturing along with 83 per cent of Ontario’s power generation and 95 per cent of Ontario’s agricultural lands depend on the Great lakes-St. Lawrence River basin.

The Lakes support a rich array of plants, animals and ecosystems and are the foundation for Ontario’s strength and success.

The Great Lakes are under stress

The health of the Great Lakes is under threat from a number of factors – increased levels of harmful pollutants such as excess road salt and plastic pollution, urban growth, managing nutrients, increasing harmful and nuisance algae, hardened shorelines and invasive species. Over the last 15 years, changes in the Great Lakes have revealed disruptions to the food chain.

Climate change is also challenging the ability of the Great Lakes to be resilient to the problems that can arise from severe weather and changes in water levels and in the thaw-and-freeze cycle.

We must protect them and, where we find they are in decline, we must restore them to good health so they remain drinkable, swimmable and fishable.

That is why Ontario has passed the Great Lakes Protection Act.

The act gives flexible new tools to protect and restore the Great Lakes.

Strengthening Great Lakes protection

Protecting and restoring the Great Lakes is part of Ontario’s plan to protect our air, land and water.

One of the ways we protect the Great Lakes is through the Great Lakes Protection Act, which:

• ensures we establish and maintain monitoring and reporting programs
• commits to establishing at least one target to reduce algal blooms (established in 2018)
• allows the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry to establish targets to prevent the loss of wetlands
• improves consultation and engagement requirements and requires consideration of traditional ecological knowledge
• requires that we table comprehensive progress reports in the legislature every three years
• requires that we review Ontario’s Great Lakes Strategy every six years
• creates more opportunities for Ontarians to become involved in the protection and restoration of the ecological health of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence River Basin
• improves the capacity of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin so it can be resilient to the impacts of climate change

Canada-Ontario Great Lakes agreement

The Canada-Ontario Agreement on Great Lakes Water Quality and Ecosystem Health is a collaborative agreement with the federal government that set out specific actions that Canada and Ontario will take to protect and restore the Great Lakes.

In 2021, Canada and Ontario signed the ninth agreement, which includes a renewed commitment to finishing environmental clean-up actions with an emphasis on six historically-degraded areas, conserving key habitats around the Great Lakes and continuing to restore Lake Erie. It also includes a new focus on protecting Lake Ontario, supporting nature-based recreation opportunities and strengthening commitments to First Nations and Métis engagement in the implementation of the agreement.

Learn more about the commitments and actions to be taken in the ninth Canada-Ontario Agreement.

Great Lakes projects receiving funding

As part of Ontario’s plan to protect our air, land and water, we are funding projects across Ontario which address issues critical to the health of the Great Lakes, including:

• increased levels of harmful pollutants
• excess nutrients
• rising levels of invasive species
• a focus on improving water quality

In 2020-21 we are providing over $5.8 million in funding for 65 new projects. These will support priority actions to restore and protect the Great Lakes and their watersheds. The following groups are leading these projects:

• communities
• organizations
• academic institutions
• Indigenous peoples

The following projects are receiving funding in 2020-21:

Great Lakes Local Action Fund

The new Great Lakes Local Action Fund provided up to $50,000 in funding for individual community-based projects that protect and restore coastal, shoreline and nearshore areas of the Great Lakes.

Learn more about the Great Lakes Local Action Fund. 

Setting clear targets

One clear way to strengthen protection of the Great Lakes is by setting targets. The Great Lakes Protection Act allows the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, in consultation with other Great Lakes ministers, communities and stakeholders, to set specific or general targets for local and lake-wide areas.

We have a goal to reduce phosphorus loadings to the western and central basins of Lake Erie by 40 per cent by 2025 – a target set under Ontario's Great Lakes Protection Act to address algal blooms. The Canada-Ontario Lake Erie Action Plan serves as Ontario’s plan to achieve this target.

The Act will also provide the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry with authority to establish one or more targets for preventing the loss of wetlands.

The ability to set clear targets could help all partners work towards common restoration and protection outcomes. Setting targets will also help Ontario to manage the cumulative impacts of activities on the Great Lakes, including climate change, and respond to specific areas when needed.

Geographically-focused initiatives

The Act enables geographically-focused initiatives, or GFIs, as a tool for developing and implementing policies to address priority issues in a specific location.

Initiatives will be developed through a collaborative local process, and will build on existing work. Some of the activities associated with protecting the Great Lakes that could be addressed with GFIs could include:

• protecting natural heritage or hydrologic features
• coordinated efforts to improve beaches
• efforts to reduce excessive algae

Based on local input, geographically-focused initiatives could be developed by a municipality, conservation authority or the province.

In addition, developing these GFIs would require engagement with First Nations and Métis communities within the area, municipalities, the scientific community, environmental organizations, farming organizations, conservation authorities, and industrial, recreational and tourism sectors.

Great Lakes Guardians' Council

The Great Lakes Guardians’ Council was established by the Great Lakes Protection Act as a forum where Great Lakes Ministers, partners and stakeholders can talk about the environmental, economic and social importance of the lakes. Learn more about the Great Lakes Guardians’ Council and  what was discussed during council meetings.

Strengthening reporting and monitoring

The Great Lakes Protection Act requires public progress reports on the Great Lakes every three years, with reports tabled in the Legislature. These reports would include results of monitoring programs, actions taken and a description of new and emerging issues. In addition, the act will also ensure that monitoring and reporting programs are established and maintained.