Ontario Supporting Projects to Protect the Great Lakes in Windsor, ON

Province partnering with The University Of Windsor to clean-up and restore the health of the Great Lakes 

NEWS	July 18, 2023

[Windsor ON] — The Ontario government is investing $6 million to support 30 multi-year projects that will help protect, conserve and restore the Great Lakes, including a project in Windsor, ON.  These investments will help reduce plastic litter, excess nutrients and road salt entering lakes, rivers and streams, advance climate resiliency, and make significant progress on restoring environmentally degraded areas of the Great Lakes.

“Our government is continuing to work with partners to ensure Ontario’s Great Lakes are protected,” said David Piccini, Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks. “We’re very proud to be supporting projects that will improve water quality, reduce plastic and salt pollution and increase collaboration with farmers, Indigenous organizations and communities to help improve the Great Lakes.” 

The projects are led by community groups, not-for profits, conservation authorities, universities and Indigenous organizations and communities across the province and support commitments in the Canada-Ontario Agreement on Great Lakes Water Quality and Ecosystem Health and Ontario’s Great Lakes Strategy.

Local Great Lakes restoration projects include:

• Working with The University Of Windsor to improve knowledge of the land to lake connection at well-established nutrient monitoring stations entering the western basin of Lake Ontario.  The project will provide insight into dominant species entering the lakes and where the nutrients are coming from.

“The great lakes are one of our most valuable natural resources and this research will help us gain important insight into their ongoing health” said Windsor-Tecumseh MPP Andrew Dowie.

Funding for the Great Lakes Program is part of the Ontario government’s $14 million in annual investments to further protect, conserve and restore the health of the Great Lakes and support the well-being of communities that rely on them.

QUICK FACTS

• Ontario’s Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River shoreline is the longest freshwater coastline in the world measuring 10,000 kilometres, which is greater than the length of the Canada-U.S.  border and almost equivalent to travelling one quarter of the way around the world.
• Ninety-nine per cent of Ontarians live in the Great Lakes Basin and 95 per cent of Ontario’s agricultural lands are in the Great Lakes Basin. 
• Areas of Concern are geographic locations in the Great Lakes identified in the mid-1980s because human activities had severely degraded water quality and ecosystem health in those specific areas.
• Working with the Great Lakes community partners, our government is making progress on actions included in Ontario’s Great Lakes Strategy, such as: 
  • restoring 14 historically Areas of Concern around the Great Lakes
  • restoring and enhancing over 74,200 acres of wetlands across Ontario 330 projects and $20 million in funding under the Wetlands Conservation Partner Program projects 
  • expanding the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail so it now stretches over 3,600 kilometers and connects 155 communities, villages and First Nations communities.

• Since 2018, the Ontario government has invested $66.5 million in 552 projects to safeguard the Great Lakes. During that time, 31 environmental clean-up actions have taken place across 17 Areas of Concern in the Great Lakes.
• The investment being announced today for the University Of Windsor is $199,200

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• Learn more about the Great Lakes and its watersheds
• Learn how the government is Protecting the Great Lakes
• Learn more about how Ontario protects and recovers species at risk and how you can help

MEDIA CONTACT

Paul Synnott

Executive Assistant Andrew Dowie, MPP

Windsor-Tecumseh

Ph: 519-251-0437 Cell: 226-724-6978

Email: paul.synnott@pc.ola.org