Most Shoreline Municipalities Support Strong Protections for Lake Simcoe

January 19, 2021

Responding to a pre-election survey conducted by our friends at Lake Simcoe Watch, the Mayors of Aurora, Barrie, Bradford-West Gwillimbury, Brock, Georgina and Oro-Medonte have all called for the development and implementation of a plan to achieve the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan’s phosphorus eduction target by 2026. The Lake Simcoe Protection Plan’s phosphorus reduction target is reducing current phosphorus loading from 90 tonnes per year (10-year average) down to 44 tonnes per year, so these Mayors’ responses are heartening. We are hopeful these political statements will help tip the scales towards a responsible, serious approach to bringing down phosphorus loads through a revised Lake Simcoe Phosphorus Reduction Strategy.

But it’s not all about phosphorus. Watershed health relies on a broader healthy ecosystem including flourishing natural areas and wetlands. The Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition’s Executive Director, along with Coalition member group leaders, made delegations to Council across the watershed requesting Councils to pass a resolution like this:

WHEREAS a healthy environment provides the foundation for healthy communities, healthy people, and a healthy economy; and WHEREAS the passage of the Lake Simcoe Protection Act received unanimous, all party support in the Ontario legislature in 2008; THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, THAT the Town of X calls on the Ontario Government to demonstrate its commitment to clean water and protecting what matters most in the provincial statutory review of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan, by ensuring that provisions in the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan that protect water quality are not weakened and that policies protecting natural heritage be strengthened, in order to meet the targets of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan; and THAT the Ontario Government be requested to work collaboratively with affected Provincial Ministries and all levels of government, including First Nations and Métis, to achieve the goals and targets of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan and to resource the programs that improve Lake Simcoe’s water quality during the provincial statutory review of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan; and THAT copies of this resolution be provided to …

Almost all shoreline municipalities, including: Aurora, Barrie, Brock, Georgina, Georgina Island First Nation Band Council, and Orillia Councils passed this resolution. Municipal Council resolutions can be viewed in detail here. Additionally, Newmarket, Oro-Medonte, and Whitchurch Stouffville passed supportive resolutions. The Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition is pleased with this result, and hopes that these municipalities will remember this as they make their comments on the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan for the province.

I speculate that one of the reasons for the show of support for our resolution is that municipalities have a lot of work to implement the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan and need the province to come to the table if collectively, we are to succeed in protecting the health of Lake Simcoe and its watershed.

At first, I was concerned that municipalities would not pass our resolution, and instead capitalize on the province’s pro-growth agenda. It would appear that some already are. For example, Innisfil, which did not pass our resolution, is currently asking the Province to issue a Minister’s Zoning Order (MZO) for the inconceivably large Orbit development which would accommodate 150,000 residents. This is a Town of 36,000 today. Despite Town officials’ reassurances, there is no guarantee that Lake Simcoe Protection Plan policies would apply through an MZO.

Additionally, the rapidly growing Towns of Bradford West Gwillimbury and East Gwillimbury, who also received our delegation, deferred taking a stand until the province started the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan review, which is now on until March 3 rd, 2021.

The Lake Simcoe Protection Plan (LSPP) is the best watershed-based legislation in Canada, and its policies are up for review. The Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks has released a public survey, while offering presentations, townhalls, and a science forum to municipalities in advance of the March 3rd deadline. However, we are now almost one month into the review process and no further details have been provided by the Province.

Municipalities are being asked to provide comments on potential changes to the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan, so it’s a good time to ensure that they remember their public commitments.

In the absence of data that supports changes, the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition and its member groups have asked the province to “Protect Our Plan”; not change it, but rather focus on its effective implementation. To date, 2,800 people have signed petitions in support of the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition and Lake Simcoe Watch’s position and priorities.

For more information and for Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition priorities for the review of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan see https://rescuelakesimcoe.org/

With thanks to intern Shannon Pittock and Board member Kira Cooper for their help.

What would a Lake Simcoe Protection Plan review look like during a pandemic?

What does legitimate public consultation on the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan look like in the middle of a global pandemic? In April, the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition asked its 26 member groups to discuss this question, and we have been sharing the opinion below with the province since. 

The province missed the 2019 deadline for the statutory review of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan, an indication (among many) that protecting the environment is not a priority for this administration. Too bad, because in retrospect it would have been simpler to get experts together starting in 2018 to produce and review the science that should inform proposals to change Lake Simcoe Protection Plan (LSPP) policies. 

Instead, the government is caught on its back foot, behind schedule, and lacking expert advice, having cut funding that allowed two mostly-volunteer committees of experts to advise the province on both the evolving science of the lake, and the implementation of the LSPP. 

I know, because I sat on these committees. They were starting to prepare advice for the minister of the environment and climate change to guide the LSPP review in 2018. But committees like these stopped meeting, all over the province, as the government cut “red tape,” no longer funding the cost of travel or food for meetings. The tap of practically-free advice was turned off. Not wanting to stand idly by, I stepped down as chair of the Lake Simcoe Coordinating Committee in late 2018. 

The province doesn’t have the conditions in place, or the expert advice it needs, to do a major policy review of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan any time soon. The province has two basic choices: 

A. Do an administrative review of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan, tidying up redundant or out-of-date regulations, but not touching the policies or targets of the LSPP. Focus instead on implementation, specifically better protecting and restoring forests and wetlands, and aggressively bringing down phosphorus loads through a strengthened Phosphorus Reduction Strategy. Phosphorus loads to the lake have gone up since the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan came into force. 

B. Take the time to get it right. For a robust and legitimate review of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan and its policies the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition and its 26 member groups suggest that the following conditions are needed: 

1. The Lake Simcoe science and co-ordinating committees need three days of meetings, with scientists, to get up to speed and have their questions answered, to provide their feedback to the province on the scope of the review. Some members of the committees are new; it is not reasonable or responsible to expect them to provide good advice about a plan they are not yet familiar with. 

2. If the Lake Simcoe Science Committee endorses the release of a current Lake Simcoe Monitoring Report, which provides adequate information upon which to make adaptive management decisions (i.e. tracks progress toward targets), we suggest that the review can start three months later. This gives analysts and the government the necessary time to evaluate progress and make thoughtful recommendations. 

3. Environmental Bill of Rights and the Environmental Registry of Ontario must be up and running. The Statement of Environmental Values must be considered by decision-makers. In April, 2020, the Ontario government passed a regulation under the Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR) that exempts new laws, regulations, or policies that will impact Ontario’s land, air, water and/or wildlife from going through a 30-day consultation period. The optics are simply not good for the government if they proceed with a major piece of environmental policy review without adequate public consultation.

4. Social distancing measures must have eased such that people would attend open houses. The province could use online consultations only, and certainly this will be part of the solution. But one of the essential components of public participation in policy review is the ability to ask questions, and equally, hearing other people’s questions is an important part of public debate. Without the ability to hold open houses, and engage people in dialogue, feedback is more likely to be from paid professionals, a dynamic that supports profit-oriented interests more than non-profit and public ones. 

5. There must be First Nations representation on the Lake Simcoe Coordinating Committee and the Lake Simcoe Science Committee. 

The Lake Simcoe Protection Plan includes “principles to guide our efforts.” These are self-explanatory, but it is worth reminding the province that they are expected to use them. For instance, the review process should use the Adaptive Management Approach of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan, which is to: 

Continuously improve and adapt our approaches, policies and management by incorporating new knowledge and innovative design, practices and technology from ongoing science and monitoring. This will allow the plan to evolve and improve over time based on new science and implementation experience.

It is not easy to do adaptive management. Monitoring data and implementation analysis must precede proposals to change management actions or policies.

And finally, despite budget crises and competing views on economic recovery, the health and prosperity of communities across the Lake Simcoe watershed still depends on a healthy environment. Indeed, the watershed’s sustainable recreation sector generates $420 million per year. Luckily for us, the LSPP’s first objective is to “protect, improve or restore the elements that contribute to the ecological health of the Lake Simcoe watershed, including, water quality, hydrology, key natural heritage features and their functions, and key hydrologic features and their functions.”

If we achieve this objective, Lake Simcoe will be a model for living within the limits of nature, which is ultimately the challenge of our time.

Written by Claire Malcolmson, the executive director of the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition.

POP! Protect Our Plan in the 2019 Review of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan

When the Lake Simcoe Protection Act was passed in 2008, the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition, its member groups, Environmental Defense, and Ontario Nature celebrated the passage of the best watershed-based legislation in Canada. Ten years later, the Province is getting ready to review the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan (LSPP). It’s time to learn what the Lake Simcoe Protection Act and Plan do, and how they are performing.

This article first appeared in the spring 2019 edition of Lake Simcoe Living magazine: https://www.lakesimcoeliving.com/

We will all have an opportunity to voice our support, concerns, and priorities for the LSPP to the Province when they announce their LSPP Review consultation plans. The Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition will keep its members up to date on this file.

What does the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan do?

The science-based plan aims to restore Lake Simcoe’s incredible cold-water fishery. To do this, phosphorus levels have to come down significantly in order to increase the oxygen available to fish in the deeper parts of the lake. It’s an all-hands-on deck exercise, since we need to cut phosphorus loads from farms and developments, urban run-off, streams, septic systems and sewage treatment plants, while doing a better job of protecting the watershed’s forests, wetlands, shoreline and stream bank vegetation.

What was strengthened under the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan?

  • Better protection of forests, wetlands (and buffer zones around those features), shorelines and stream banks from development and site alteration. The RLSC’s research finds that 26% of the watershed’s land is well protected natural cover, but this falls well short of the LSPP target of 40% “high quality natural cover” in the watershed;
  • Tougher Sewage Treatment Plant phosphorus caps. Municipalities are improving the technologies used to remove phosphorus and other nutrients and pollutants from their wastewater plants’ effluent. The greatest reductions in phosphorus loads between 2005 and 2015 came from improved treatment technologies at sewage treatment plants, down 46%;
  • The Lake Simcoe Phosphorus Reduction Strategy, 2010, should lay out a plan to achieve the target phosphorus load of 44 tonnes per year by 2045, but doesn’t quite. The annual phosphorus load is not going down enough; 2005 – 2010 and 2010 – 2015 periods both averaged 85 tonnes / year;
  • Systems to reduce the growing phosphorus load from new development: Improved stormwater management and development guidelines must be followed in new development applications. If phosphorus still flows off the site, the developer pays $35,000 / kg of phosphorus exported / year. Revenues of the Lake Simcoe Phosphorus Offset Program are used locally for retrofits of existing developments and stormwater management systems that pollute the lake;
  • Provincial staff at the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks and $20 million in Provincial funding, for LSPP implementation;
  • Mandatory inspections of septic systems within 100 meters of water features, every 5 years;
  • Mandatory inclusion of subwatershed plans in municipal Official Plans. Subwatershed plans outline actions to be taken locally, to achieve the objectives of the LSPP;
  • Better science, monitoring, and oversight by Lake Simcoe Science Committee and the multi-stakeholder Lake Simcoe Coordinating Committee. These committees meet quarterly to review and comment on scientific research and LSPP implementation actions, and provide yearly advice to the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.

Despite these amazing efforts, particularly by the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority, Lake Simcoe’s phosphorus levels are not going down as much as expected. The LSPP review provides an opportunity to say, “more funding, and better implementation plans are needed to achieve key ecological targets in the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan.” Let’s do that, together.  

Download the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition’s “Protect Our Plan” priorities and the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan at: https://rescuelakesimcoe.org/resources-2/

Author: Claire Malcolmson is the Executive Director of the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition (RLSC). The RLSC is a lake-wide citizens’ umbrella group that provides leadership and motivates people to take action to protect Lake Simcoe. RLSC represents 22 local organizations and clubs in the watershed. For more information, and to join the RLSC email list, see www.RescueLakeSimcoe.org