Dear Editor,
After several conversations with the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, the Muskrat Lake Association (MLA) submitted a Request for Review under the Environmental Bill of Rights in June 2017 asking for a Protection Plan and a Protection Act for Muskrat Lake similar to what Lake Simcoe has.
On June 30, 2019 the MLA received an email and report from Mr. Bruce Bateman, Assistant Deputy Minister, of MECP and in the conclusion states that: “… the Ministry is able to conclude that it has existing environmental policies , legislation, regulations, tools, programs, and plans that can help address water quality issues in Muskrat Lake (i.e. phosphorus contamination) in accordance with its mandate. …. The Ministry recognizes the importance of resilient communities and local solutions based on science and evidence-based methods.”
In other words, you’re on your own.
There was no mention about the MLA request for a Protection Plan or a Protection Act.
In that document the MLA understood, as stated by the International Joint Commission on the Great Lakes, that “Enforceable Regulations” are required as voluntary action is not sufficient to resolve the issues of nutrient contamination.
Since receiving the report from Mr. Bateman the MLA has answered the MECP and have requested a meeting to see what we can agree is the next step.
The MLA has also recently acquired several documents that show the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture violated the 1978, Water Management, Goals, Policies, Objectives and Implementation Procedures of the Ministry of the Environment, by allowing deepening of the Upper Harris Drain, and other drainage works to go ahead in the 1980’s which further contaminated Muskrat Lake.
In that document it states: “Water quality which presently does not meet the Provincial Water Quality Objectives (20 ug/l of total phosphorus) shall not be degraded further and all practical measures shall be taken to upgrade the water quality to the Objectives” but unfortunately Muskrat Lake has been degraded further.
What will get our politicians and government bureaucrats to take action to fix the environmental problem called Muskrat Lake?
What is an environmental problem has now become a political issue as well.
Sincerely,
Donald W. Deer P. Eng.
Cobden, ON
Muskrat Lake Association
