York Simcoe – Lake Simcoe Watch

Scot Davidson (Conservative)

Question #1: Should the Government of Canada work with the Government of Ontario, the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority and/or municipalities in the Lake Simcoe watershed to reduce Lake Simcoe’s phosphorus loadings to 44 tonnes per year by 2026?

Yes

Ensuring the health and well-being of Lake Simcoe remains one of my top priorities, and in the Lake Simcoe Watch questionnaire submitted during the February by-election, I pledged to “champion the return of funding for the health of Lake Simcoe”— which is exactly what I did.

Canada’s Conservatives have committed to restoring the Lake Simcoe Clean-Up Fund cancelled by the Trudeau Liberals, with a $30-million investment over four years that will make a significant and positive difference for Lake Simcoe.

Just as it did between 2007 and 2017, the Lake Simcoe Clean-Up Fund will partner with local environmental and stewardship organizations – including the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority – to protect and restore the lake and surrounding watershed.

Question #2: Should the Government of Canada work with the Government of Ontario, the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority and/or municipalities in the Lake Simcoe watershed to ensure that by 2026, at least 40% of Lake Simcoe’s watershed consists of high-quality connected forests, wetlands and meadows?

Yes

Canada’s Conservatives are the only federal political party that have made a specific commitment to clean up Lake Simcoe in this election. The re-instatement of the Lake Simcoe Clean-Up Fund will deliver real results for Lake Simcoe and ensure a healthier and more sustainable watershed.

Ensuring that the watershed is connected by high-quality forest, wetland, and meadow cover is an important objective as development in the watershed increases. The previous iteration of the Clean-Up Fund was immensely successful in these efforts: it planted over 72,000 grass, trees, and shrubs; stabilised hundreds of kilometres of stream and lake banks; and altogether improved the lake’s water quality.

I expect similarly successful results from a restored Lake Simcoe Clean-Up Fund under a new Conservative Government.

Question #3: The Conservative Party has promised to establish a Lake Simcoe Clean-Up Fund. Other parties have not said specifically how they will clean up the Lake. If you are a Conservative Party candidate, please state by how many tonnes per year the proposed Lake Simcoe Clean-Up Fund will reduce Lake Simcoe’s phosphorus loadings by 2026. If you are a candidate with another party, what is your party’s plan for cleaning up the Lake?

A re-instated Lake Simcoe Clean Up Fund will demonstrably reduce phosphorus levels in Lake Simcoe, as it did between 2007 and 2017 before it was cancelled by the Trudeau Liberals.

Since the cancellation of the Lake Simcoe Clean-Up Fund by the Trudeau Liberals, phosphorus levels in the lake have been increasing. Canada’s Conservatives will restore the Clean-Up Fund to support community-based projects that will demonstrably reduce phosphorus levels in the lake, in addition to other objectives to clean up Lake Simcoe.

This will be achieved by reducing rural and urban non-point sources of phosphorous and nutrients; creating and rehabilitating wetlands and naturalizing watercourses to attenuate phosphorous discharges; and reducing phosphorous from sources including sewage, combined sewer overflows, and urban stormwater systems.

All of these projects will be undertaken utilising effective science-based approaches and in partnership with local environmental and stewardship organizations, the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority, Environment Canada, and other entities.

Jonathan Arnold (Green)

Yes

These goals and and initiatives will be extremely challenging with the amount of development proposed and the sewage plant proposed. The Chippewa Nation should be involved in all conversations with this lake and all the impacts to the watershed. We need to ensure that our Conservative Governments and our Premier does not continue to tear apart this environmental platform as he has done with every other environmental platform. The plan is up for its five year review and even if it is funded federally it's going to be up to our provincial government to follow through. There track record has shown that our environment is second to the interest of development and they continue to betray our community with attempts to sell off parts of our morain to developers who have made significant contributions to their campaign. If you want to save Lake Simcoe you need to save our Moraine. We need better leadership on all levels of government. It is alarming that we have a Nation of people in our riding on a water boiling advisory. No more empty promises. Water is life.

Yes

Yes the land around Lake Simcoe is vital to the lakes ecology . The Oak Ridges Moraine needs to be protected from development and corporate interests in our politics. To save Lake Simcoe we need to improve the methods of development and work towards net zero houses, insure our sewage does not end up in our lake and the water is clean for generations. We drink this water and water is life. We need to protect our wetlands, meadows, and continue to utilize them for tourism, keeping York Simcoe prosperous and green.

We need to stand behind the Science and this doesn't seem to be the agenda of the larger parties as displayed for 3 generations of ignoring and distracting from our ecological wisdom and scientific evidence. The sewage plant has not been approved or properly presented to the Chippewa Nation and this is unacceptable. The Green Party platform will improve protection to our Great Lakes that sadly are currently less protected than Lake Simcoe. The fact is that the entire Trent water system needs to be protected from lack of policy and protection. We need to stop the provincial governments from selling our Morain and raise the entire watershed to a federally protected plan with continual funding that will ensure our children have clean water. Water is life only second to clean air. The Conservative and Liberal parties do not want to stand behind the science and have continually put corporate interests first. Stop the political and economic monopoly.

Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux (Liberal)

Yes

I worked on the Lake Simcoe Science Committee for more than 4 years. We worked hard to create a strategy to reduce phosphorous and we were successful, but there is still more work to do and public education around the entire lake is critical to the success of reducing Lake Simcoe Phosphorous loadings and other environmental impacts. We ALL need to communicate more effectively with each other to protect the health of our lake! I am very prepared to work with all parties fighting to protect Lake Simcoe.

Yes

I met with Chief Big Canoe and community members at Georgina Island, where I live, about initiating a entire lake project that would work towards "re-wild" the entire shoreline, (Hilary Van Welter's term), and ensure the planting of trees, bushes, and preserved meadows that filter what goes into the lake. And, hiring as summer employment, students and unemployed youth to test the entire shoreline of the lake to see where effluents are coming in so they can be traced and stopped.

My plan for the lake, as a liberal candidate, is to fight for a renewal of the 60 million dollar clean-up fund which expired in 2017, and ensure we have the monies to create public awareness, re-wild the shorelines, create strong partnerships with the province and the many coalitions around the lake and support our young people who have a clear and vested interest in these beautiful waters. People of all ages have a responsibility to protect the lake and ensure the promotion of tourism isn't hurting the health of this entire region. We have to monitor businesses close to the water and ensure nothing is being drained into the water. We have to work effectively with Holland Marsh and other farmers to support their initiatives and work on ways to reduce the run-off of fertilizers and other bio solids, while respecting their need to ensure we have healthy foods to eat.

Jessa McLean (NDP)

Yes

To go even further, the NDP will fully restore the waterway protections that were drastically removed by the Conservatives under Harper.

Yes

As with all other bodies of water, Lake Simcoe is in desperate need of attention from all levels of government. Reducing phosphorous levels, and preventing further pollution to our waterways is a top priority for the NDP. The Conservatives may be offering funds, but they have been singularly responsible for stripping much of the protections that had been in place to protect our waterways. The current Ontario PCs are, as we speak, ready to green light the Upper York Sewage Solution, to which the Chippewas of Georgina have clearly and constantly opposed. This will devastate our lake. Rather than ignoring the First Nation communities and the water protectors, the NDP will ratify the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) to ensure that they have a say in what happens to the water we all rely on. We will also grow the Indigenous Guardians Program to embrace traditional knowledge on biodiversity, and will listen to indigenous led science and support the creation of indigenous-managed protected areas. The NDP will restore waterway protections and will create a Environmental Bill of Rights that will empower conservation authorities to establish stream and shoreline rehabilitation guidelines, stop discharge from treatment plants from spewing micro-plastics and chemicals into Lake Simcoe. We have also committed $400 million to boost conservation efforts.