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Councillors Ann-Marie Kungl and Clare Riepma will be asking Barrie city council to pass a motion tonight requesting the government of Ontario to fund and implement a plan to reduce Lake Simcoe’s phosphorus pollution to 44 tonnes per year with a target date of 2030.
Similar motions have been passed by Orillia, Ramara, Oro-Medonte, Brock, Bradford West Gwillimbury and Georgina.
The Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation and Ontario Liberal Party Leader Bonnie Crombie are also calling for Lake Simcoe’s phosphorus pollution to be reduced to 44 tonnes per year by 2030.
In 2009, the government of Ontario released its Lake Simcoe Protection Plan, which called for Lake Simcoe’s phosphorus pollution to be reduced by 50 per cent to 44 tonnes per year to protect our cold-water fishery (e.g., lake trout and whitefish) and to prevent excessive weed growth and algae blooms.
Unfortunately, the government of Ontario has still not developed a plan and a budget to reduce Lake Simcoe’s phosphorus pollution to 44 tonnes per year. As a result, it has risen by 26 per cent between 2015 and 2020 relative to its 2009 level. We are going in the wrong direction.
Please click here to read our plan to clean up Lake Simcoe.
What you can do?
If you live in Barrie, please click here ask Mayor Alex Nuttall and Barrie city council to support Ann-Marie Kungl and Clare Riepma's motion.
Jack Gibbons
Lake Simcoe Watch, chair
