Saying efforts to protect the Great Lakes are scattered among different ministries and agencies, NDP candidates in Windsor-Essex vowed their party would create a new ministry to coordinate those efforts.
The federal candidate in Essex, Tracey Ramsey, was joined Friday morning by Windsor-Tecumseh's Cheryl Hardcastle and Brian Masse in Windsor West at the LaSalle Freshwater Restoration Ecology Centre to announce her party's plan to protect freshwater in Canada.
"Without an overall minister and a department that is focused specifically on the health of the Great Lakes, we feel that things are slipping through the cracks," Ramsey said.
"We know regionally, that we're experiencing algal blooms, invasive species, we have species at risk, and of course the flooding that we've had locally," she continued. "This became part of our party's platform as well, and would be included under the new minister."
Ramsey did not say what kind of budget the ministry should have but did say her party would be open to putting other large Canadian lakes, like Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories and Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba, under the ministry's watch.
Ramsey pointed out her party was the first to create a critic for the Great Lakes and that she introduced a National Fresh Water Strategy this year.
The NDP has laid out an environmental plan that would also give municipalities direct access to federal funding to fix infrastructure and avoid flooding.
Photo Submitted By John Vollmar
The Essex Region Conservation Authority just downgraded a flood watch earlier this week that it first issued in May. High lake levels flooded many homes along the shores of Lake Erie, Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River this past summer.
During a morning stop in Windsor last Monday, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau also pledged to bypass provinces that refuse to cooperate with Ottawa in the distribution of infrastructure funding. He said his party would give provinces two years to lay out their priorities before the federal government offered the cash to cities and towns in need.
She also said her party, should it win power in Monday's federal election, would give the International Joint Commission on the Great Lakes more authority to carry out investigations and levy fines against polluters.
"They certainly need the ability to be empowered," she explained. "Their hands have been very tied, and they have been critical of the government, and we'd like to ease that."
Ramsey is running in Monday's election against Conservative Chris Lewis, Liberal Audrey Festeryga, Jennifer Alderson of the Green Party, and People's Party of Canada candidate Bill Capes.