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Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement
Review 2006
Dear Great Lakes Stakeholder Community:
The U.S. and Canadian Federal governments, as the Parties to the Great Lakes
Water
Quality Agreement (the Agreement), have begun the process of reviewing the
operation
and effectiveness of the Agreement. This review (the Review) is required
under Article
X of the Agreement. As past reviews have shown, this exercise will be an
intensive
undertaking. In order to insure its success, the Review will require the
cooperation and
involvement of a variety of public and private sector Great Lakes Basin
Stakeholders
from the U.S. and Canada.
The importance of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement is widely
recognized. It
commits the two countries to restore and maintain the chemical, physical and
biological
integrity of the waters of the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem and has been held
up as a
successful model of Canada-United States partnership, showing that bilateral
cooperation is strong, effective and productive. The Review of the Agreement
will help
to insure that it continues to fulfill this role well into the future.
The Parties have also committed to an open, transparent and inclusive review
process
which allows for the involvement of all interested parties. To this end, the
Great Lakes
Binational Executive Committee (BEC) agreed at its February 8-9, 2006
meeting that the
BEC Co-chairs would solicit both broad public stakeholder and government
agency
interest in participating in the Review through membership on a number of
Review
Working Groups (RWGs) which are described in the attachment.
The work of the RWGs will commence in late April 2006 and continue to the
end of
Calendar Year 2006. Participation will require a commitment to review
particular
aspects of the Agreement (as outlined in the attachment) and to attend
regularly held
conference calls (i.e. monthly or bimonthly), as well as the potential of
attending a small
number of in-person meetings. We also ask that those wishing to be involved
provide
some information on their background and level of expertise in the
subject-matter
relating to the Review Working Group in which they wish to participate.
Should you wish to be involved in the Review through participation in a
Review
Working Group, please complete the attached membership form and return it to
either the Canadian or U.S. member of the Agreement Review Committee
Secretariat (as appropriate) by no later than March 31, 2006.
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