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Amending the Great Lakes Water Quality AgreementBackgroundThe Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA), first signed in 1972, revised in 1978 and amended by protocol in 1987, expresses the commitment of Canada and the United States to restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the Great Lakes basin ecosystem, and includes a number of objectives and guidelines to achieve these goals. The Agreement reaffirms the rights and obligation of Canada and the United States under the Boundary Waters Treaty. In 2007, the governments of Canada and the United States completed a comprehensive public review of the operation and effectiveness of the current Agreement (the results of which are documented in Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement Review 2007: Final Agreement Review Report). The key outcome of the public review was that, while there have been many successes; the GLWQA is outdated and unable to address current threats to Great Lakes water quality. Recognizing that the GLWQA is out of date, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced on June 13, 2009, at the Boundary Waters Treaty Centennial Celebration in Niagara Falls, that the two countries would begin negotiations to amend the Agreement. Negotiations of amendments to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement formally commenced on January 27, 2010 On April 8, 2010, senior officials from Environment Canada, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency met for the second formal negotiating session for amending the GLWQA.
On January 27, 2010, senior officials from Environment Canada, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency successfully concluded the first formal negotiating session for amending the Canada-United States Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. A summary of the meeting is provided in the following documents.
Binational Public Engagement ProcessThe Governments of Canada and the United States (the Parties) will be hosting a series of binational public Webinars on substantive issues during the week of June 7, 2010. In support of the binational public Webinars, the Parties have developed questions and potential scenarios for each of these issues. In addition to soliciting input during these Webinars, written comments can be submitted through this website up to July 9, 2010. For further information and to provide your comments on the issues: Additional InformationGLWQA Review Reports:Review of the Canada–U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement Review of the Canada–U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement Review of the Canada–U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement IJC Reports:Synthesis of Public Comment on the Forthcoming Review by the Federal
Governments of Canada and the United States of the Great Lakes Water
Quality Agreement: A Report to the Governments of the United States and
Canada January 2006 Advice to Governments on their Review of the Great Lakes Water Quality
Agreement: A Special Report to the Governments of Canada and the United
States August 2006 13th Biennial Report on Great Lakes Water Quality December 2006
For further information, please contact:James Schardt OR Great Lakes Environment Office For technical difficulties with this website, please contact: Pranas Pranckevicius Return to binational.net homepage
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URL: http://binational.net/glwqa_2010_e.html |