Articles

Now therefore the parties have agreed as follows:

Article I – Definitions

In this agreement:

  1. "agreement" means the Canada-Ontario Agreement on Great Lakes Water Quality and Ecosystem Health, 2021, including any annexes;
  2. "Canada-United States Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement" means the Great Lakes Water Quality Protocol of 2012 between Canada and the United States;
  3. “chemicals of concern” means chemicals which Canada and Ontario agree are of concern to human health or the environment in the Great Lakes and should be considered a priority for specific action(s). A chemical of concern could be considered for nomination under the chemicals of mutual concern annex of the Canada-United States Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement;
  4. “good governance” means pursue a decision-making process based on public participation, transparency and accountability;
  5. “Great Lakes” means the waters of Lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario and the connecting river systems of St. Marys, St. Clair including Lake St. Clair, Detroit, Niagara and St. Lawrence at the international boundary or upstream from the point at which this river becomes the international boundary between Canada and the United States, including all open and nearshore waters;
  6. “Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem” means the interacting components of air, land, water and living organisms, including humans, and all of the streams, rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water, including groundwater, that are in the drainage basin of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River at the international boundary or upstream from the point at which this river becomes the international boundary between Canada and the United States;
  7. “Great Lakes community” means First Nations and Métis; municipal governments; conservation authorities; non-government organizations; the scientific community; the industrial, agricultural, recreational, tourism and other sectors; and members of the public with an interest in Great Lakes issues;
  8. “Harmful pollutants” means chemicals or pathogens that have an adverse effect on human or ecological health including, but not restricted to, chemicals of concern or substances of emerging concern;
  9. “Nuisance algae blooms” means blooms of algae such as Cladophora that degrade fish and wildlife habitat, clog water intake pipes and foul shorelines and fishing equipment but which do not produce toxins;
  10. “Ontario’s Great Lakes Strategy” means the current version of the document entitled “Ontario’s Great Lakes Strategy” prepared under section 5 of the Great Lakes Protection Act , 2015 and published by the Government of Ontario;
  11. “Ontario’s Environment Plan” means the 2018 draft document entitled Preserving and Protecting our Environment for Future Generations: A Made-in-Ontario Environment Plan as posted by the Government of Ontario, or its successor;
  12. “Road salts” means substances used for deicing and other purposes that contain inorganic chloride salts with or without ferrocyanide salts;
  13. “Harmful Algae Blooms”, also called blue-green algae blooms or cyanobacteria blooms, means a type of bacteria that undergoes photosynthesis and can be influenced by excessive phosphorus concentrations. Cyanobacteria can produce toxic substances called cyanotoxins with the potential to harm humans and other organisms.

Article II – Purpose

  1. The purpose of this agreement is to restore, protect and conserve Great Lakes water quality and ecosystem health in order to assist in achieving the vision of a healthy, prosperous and sustainable region for present and future generations.
  2. The parties commit to continuing to work together in a cooperative, coordinated and integrated fashion, with each other and with others around the Great Lakes on a good governance basis, to achieve the vision.
  3. To achieve the vision, the agreement:
    1. establishes principles that will guide the actions of the parties;
    2. describes the development of annexes to respond to existing or emerging environmental issues;
    3. sets in place administrative arrangements for the effective and efficient management of the agreement; and
    4. establishes common priorities, results and commitments for the restoration, protection and conservation of the Great Lakes.

    Article III – Principles

    The following principles will guide the actions of the parties under the agreement:

    1. Accountability – remain accountable to citizens by establishing clear results and commitments for this agreement and providing regular reporting;
    2. Adaptive management – conduct activities with openness, innovation and a view to continuous improvement to ensure effective and efficient management of the agreement;
    3. Collaboration, cooperation and engagement – ensure that the decision-making process provides the Great Lakes community with meaningful opportunities to discuss, advise and participate directly in activities that support the agreement, and incorporates consideration of opinions and advice from the Great Lakes community;
    4. Communication – ensure that effective methods are used to inform the public of the importance of the Great Lakes, the increasingly complex environmental challenges faced by the Great Lakes and ongoing efforts to overcome the challenges, and to encourage collaborative and individual action and stewardship to restore, protect and conserve the Great Lakes;
    5. Conservation – promote the conservation and efficient use of energy, water and other resources to sustain the physical, chemical and biological integrity of the Great Lakes;
    6. Cumulative effects – consider the combined impacts of individual actions on the environment
    7. First Nations and Métis – their identity, cultures, interests, knowledge and traditional practices will be considered by the parties in the restoration, protection and conservation of the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem;
    8. Free exchange of information – collect data once, closest to the source, in the most efficient manner possible and share the information with others;
    9. Net gain – design human development and management actions to maximize environmental benefits rather than acting only to minimize environmental costs;
    10. Polluter pays – recognize that the polluter should be held accountable and bear the cost of its pollution;
    11. Pollution prevention – use processes, practices, materials, products, substances or energy that avoid or minimize the creation of pollutants and waste and reduce the overall risk to the environment or human health;
    12. Precautionary principle – where there are threats of serious or irreversible environmental damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation;
    13. Science-based management – provide advice to establish management priorities, policies and programs based on best available science, research and knowledge, including traditional ecological knowledge when offered;
    14. Sustainability – consider social, economic and environmental demands to balance the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs;
    15. Virtual elimination – adopt the principle of virtual elimination of chemicals of concern, as appropriate; and
    16. Zero discharge – apply the philosophy of zero discharge of releases of chemicals of concern, as appropriate.

    Article IV – Annexes

    1. The parties agree to develop and implement annexes that focus on environmental issues that are a priority for the parties and will benefit from cooperative and coordinated action.
    2. Through this agreement, Canada and Ontario provide specific results and commitments to work together and with the Great Lakes community on a good governance basis to restore, protect and conserve water quality and ecosystem health in the Great Lakes. They are addressed in thirteen annexes, which are grouped under five priorities:
    3. Protecting waters
      1. Nutrients
      2. Harmful pollutants
      3. Wastewater and stormwater
      4. Discharges from vessels
      1. Areas of concern
      2. Lakewide management
      1. Aquatic invasive species
      2. Habitat and species
      1. Groundwater quality
      2. Climate change impacts and resilience
      1. From awareness to action
      2. Métis and the Great Lakes
      3. First Nations and the Great Lakes
      1. a preamble, introducing the subject of the annex and the articulation of what both parties will strive to achieve in the long-term; and
      2. results for the Great Lakes specific to the subject of the annex, and commitments that each party will deliver jointly or separately, as specified for the duration of the annex in order to achieve the intended results.

      Article V – Administration of the agreement

      • The COA Executive Committee provides oversight to thirteen annexes under five priority areas.
        • Protecting waters
          • Nutrients
          • Harmful pollutants
          • Wastewater and stormwater
          • Discharges from vessels
          • Areas of concern
          • Lakewide management
          • Aquatic invasive species
          • Habitat and species
          • Groundwater quality
          • Climate change impacts and resilience
          • From awareness to action
          • Métis and the Great Lakes
          • First Nations and the Great Lakes

          COA Executive Committee

          1. The oversight of the agreement will be entrusted to the COA Executive Committee. The committee will consist of Assistant Deputy Ministers, Regional Director Generals or most senior regional representatives or their delegates from all departments, ministries and agencies of the parties who are responsible for leading or supporting one or more commitments in any of the annexes. The committee will be co-chaired by Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks. The committee will meet at least annually to ensure effective and efficient implementation of the agreement.
          2. Canada will invite the Ontario members of the COA Executive Committee to participate on the Canada-United States Great Lakes Executive Committee pursuant to Article 5 of the Canada-United States Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The COA Executive Committee will convene discussions prior to meetings of the Canada-United States Great Lakes Executive Committee to review and advise on issues to be raised at the meetings.
          3. Canada will invite Ontario to participate on appropriate annex-specific subcommittees to the Canada-United States Great Lakes Executive Committee, as required, to assist in the implementation of the Canada-United States Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement pursuant to Article 5 of that agreement.
          4. The COA Executive Committee will be responsible for:
            1. reviewing priorities on an annual basis and coordinating the implementation of the agreement;
            2. undertaking annual evaluations and assessments of the agreement, and recommending amendments and/or action to facilitate progress as appropriate;
            3. facilitating strategic discussions on issues such as infrastructure, science and innovation between signatory and non-signatory departments, ministries and agencies of the parties and others to ensure the effective coordination of actions;
            4. overseeing the development, amendment and implementation of annexes;
            5. overseeing the delivery of timely communications and public progress reporting, as described in Article VII, to the Great Lakes community and ensuring opportunities for engagement and enhanced collaborative action on Great Lakes;
            6. holding roundtable discussions, as appropriate, with invited representatives of relevant domestic Great Lakes bodies or jurisdictions that have an interest in the management of the Great Lakes and representatives of the Great Lakes community, including downstream interests along the St. Lawrence River; and
            7. developing common positions for representing Canadian interests and engaging in cooperative initiatives with United States agencies and the International Joint Commission.

            Annex leads

            1. To manage the implementation of each annex, the parties will identify federal-provincial annex leads for:
              1. overseeing annex-specific coordination, cooperation and integration of activities, including the establishment of annex teams as needed;
              2. identifying lead and support departments, ministries and agencies for commitments under that annex;
              3. coordinating implementation of the agreement commitments including projects to achieve those commitments and undertaking an annual assessment of progress. Every effort will be made to ensure a coordinated and cooperative approach by maximizing the integration of activities of contributing departments, ministries, agencies and others;
              4. recommending a course of action to the COA Executive Committee or COA Executive Committee Co-Chairs when more authority or policy direction is required to achieve the results and commitments of the agreement;
              5. ensuring opportunities for engagement, participation, coordinated action and cooperation with the Great Lakes community as appropriate, to examine emerging issues, advise on projects and deliver annex results and commitments;
              6. reviewing science priorities within annexes on an annual basis and holding roundtable discussions, as appropriate, to support science-informed results and commitments of the agreement; and
              7. collaboratively engaging First Nations and Métis communities in the delivery of annex commitments, as appropriate.

              Article VI – Science

              The parties agree to conduct, maintain, focus and coordinate science activities, programs, data and information, as well as support traditional ecological knowledge and, when offered, consider this knowledge in decision-making, in order to contribute towards the achievement of the purpose of the agreement.

              Article VII – Reporting

              The parties agree to deliver to the public, reports on progress made under the agreement in a timely and transparent manner: Canada under the Canada-United States Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, Ontario under Ontario’s Great Lakes Protection Act , 2015 and, jointly through COA Progress reporting.

              Article VIII – Resources

              The parties commit to providing the resources needed to implement the agreement and the annexes pursuant to it, subject to there being an appropriation for such purposes in Parliament or the Legislature, as the case may be, in the relevant fiscal year. The parties agree to create opportunities for others to contribute resources, as appropriate, to achieving the purpose of the agreement.

              Article IX – Notification

              1. Prior to undertaking any changes to the Canada-United States Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, Canada will consult with Ontario.
              2. Prior to undertaking any activities with the United States that may significantly affect this agreement, Canada will notify Ontario.
              3. Prior to undertaking any agreement with States of the United States that may significantly affect this agreement, Ontario will notify Canada.
              4. The parties agree to continue to cooperate in anticipating, preventing and responding to threats to the Great Lakes. The parties agree to facilitate the exchange of information using existing mechanisms to provide notice of any proposed activity that could have a significant impact on the waters of the Great Lakes.

              Article X – Amending the agreement

              The agreement may be amended by the parties at any time. The parties commit to engaging the Great Lakes community, as appropriate, when amending the agreement. An amendment will be confirmed by an exchange of letters by the parties setting out the amendment and the date it enters into force.

              Article XI – Dispute avoidance

              1. The parties are committed to working collaboratively to avoid and resolve any dispute concerning the management of the agreement and the performance of obligations set out in the annexes.
              2. The COA Executive Committee will make all reasonable efforts to resolve any dispute under this agreement.
              3. In the event that a dispute under the agreement is not resolved by the COA Executive Committee, either party may provide written notice to the other party of the matter in dispute together with related information and documentation requesting further efforts by the parties to resolve the matter. In that event, within 60 days of notice, the parties will meet to discuss the dispute in a cooperative and collaborative manner. If the dispute is not resolved within 60 days of the meeting, or such longer period as the parties may agree, the parties may jointly retain a third party to provide mediation in connection with the resolution of the dispute.

              Article XII – Entry into force

              This agreement will enter into force on June 1, 2021, and will remain in force for five years, until May 31, 2026. The agreement may be terminated earlier by either party giving the other at least six months written notice.

              Article XIII – Compliance with law

              1. Nothing in this agreement alters the legislative or other authority of the parties with respect to the exercise of their legislative or other authorities under the Constitution of Canada.
              2. The parties acknowledge that the obligations in this agreement are subject to the applicable laws of Canada and Ontario.

              Original signed by

              On behalf of Her Majesty The Queen Right of Canada

              Minister of the Environment (and Minister Responsible for Parks Canada Agency)
              Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
              Minister of Fisheries and Oceans
              Minister of Health
              Minister of Natural Resources
              Minister of Transport

              On behalf of Her Majesty The Queen Right of Canada

              Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks
              Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry
              Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs