Michigan, Ont. meet on Great Lakes

Trump plan to slash millions from restoration projects worries region’s leaders

The Trump administration’s proposal to gut Great Lakes cleanup funding by 97 per cent is “a challenge,” Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said Monday after meeting with Premier Kathleen Wynne.

With U.S. President Donald Trump heading to Motown on Wednesday, concerns were flagged about the plan from Washington to slash the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to $10 million, down from $300 million a year.

“I think that’s a challenge,” Snyder told reporters in Detroit after he and Wynne met for almost an hour.

“That’s something I wouldn’t like to see happen at that level,” he added, noting the budget has not yet been submitted to Congress.

“It’s very early in this administration . . . This is something that we’ll have to wait and see.”

Wynne, who will co-host a summit of Great Lakes governors and premiers in Windsor, Ont., and Detroit with Snyder in October, said water quality will be a major topic.

“Protection of the Great Lakes is something that has been very much a focus of mine as premier and I want to continue to work with all of the Great Lakes states to make sure that we are good stewards of that ecosystem.”

Just last week, the Ontario and Canadian governments released a draft action plan to reduce dangerous algae blooms in Lake Erie.

One such bloom in the summer of 2014 forced Toledo, Ohio, an hour’s drive south of Detroit, to declare a state of emergency and temporarily shut down its water intake system because of dangerous toxins.

Water in Toledo’s treatment plant tested positive for microcystin, which can cause liver and kidney damage as well as diarrhea, nausea and dizziness along with seizures and respiratory failure, in extreme cases.

The Canadian plan aims to reduce excess amounts of phosphorous, which fuels the blooms, from reach- ing the lake in agricultural runoff and from other sources such as broken septic systems.

Under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, Canada and the U.S. have agreed to finalize their action plans for Lake Erie by next February.

Aside from harmful effects on drinking water, algae blooms interfere with boaters and foul beaches.

The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative has warned the proposed funding cut from Washington “would be devastating to the efforts of our two countries over the past five decades to restore this resource.”

Aside from protecting drinking water, the American Great Lakes cleanup effort works to prevent and control invasive species, such as the Asian carp, and rehabilitates native fish habitats. Snyder called the Great Lakes, which hold 20 per cent of the planet’s fresh water and are a source of drinking water for millions, “one of the world’s greatest assets,” but said they likely wouldn’t be on the agenda for Trump’s visit.

“The primary focus is going to be on intelligent and autonomous vehicles,” he added in a nod to last year’s memorandum of understanding with Ontario to develop projects jointly to make the two jurisdictions a world leader in self-driving cars.

Trump will be visiting the American Centre for Mobility in suburban Willow Run, a former Second World War bomber plant that is now a nonprofit centre for testing autonomous vehicles, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Wynne and her Michigan counterpart also talked about the importance of cross-border trade and the need for the new Gordie Howe International Bridge as Trump contemplates a review of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“We are obviously working in a world where the federal governments are making decisions,” Wynne said. “The fact that we have the relationship and integrated economies will actually influence those national discussions.”

For his part, Snyder said Michigan is “on track” to expropriate more properties needed for the bridge plaza in the Delray neighbourhood of Detroit, downriver from the Ambassador Bridge.