Tories call for more funds to fight algae

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This article was published 27/11/2017 (2883 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — The federal Tories say the Liberals need to shore up a program that unclogs Manitoba’s algae-prone lakes before it affects Winnipeggers’ water quality. The government is hinting it will tackle the issue through a much bigger program it has just relaunched.

Dauphin MP Robert Sopuck was one of the Conservatives who created the recreational fisheries conservation partnerships program in 2013. The five-year project was designed to fund as much as half of the cost of upgrades to recreational fisheries.

The program has funded technical projects such as aeration systems, which add oxygen to a lake and combat algae blooms that kill plants that feed fish. The fund has also paid for rock or wooden structures that provide fish habitat and spawning grounds.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans says as of Nov. 16, the program has awarded or allocated $43.1 million for 618 projects, the last of which ends in April 2019.

Within that time period, just $519,903 has gone to 14 projects in Manitoba. Brandon Conservative MP Larry Maguire argues that funding has been critical to Prairie lakes, because they’re shallow and heat up quickly, which encourages algae blooms.

“It’s not a huge investment to do great improvements in these lakes,” Maguire said.

A recent study co-authored by a University of Winnipeg researcher found that Manitoba lakes have some of the highest rates of phosphorus recycling in Canada, a phenomenon when sewage and debris from farms contribute to algae, altering the water’s acidity even after those blooms are cleared.

That study flagged Killarney Lake, which is in Maguire’s riding, as especially bad. Pelican Lake, which is 15 kilometres north, received a $46,700 grant for the April 2015-16 fiscal year. That paid for half an aeration system that reportedly has stopped fish deaths and a rotten-egg smell that hampered tourism.

When local groups tried to get funding for Killarney Lake, they learned the program had stopped accepting applications more than a year ago.

Maguire said the issue should concern Winnipeggers.

“It does impact the city. It impacts everybody in the province,” said Maguire, who raised the issue in Parliament three times this month.

He says small lakes in his area flow into the Pembina River basin, which drains into the Red River at the U.S. border, and then “comes straight through Winnipeg.” Similarly, algae-plagued Whitewater Lake has overflowed into the Souris River, which drains into the Assiniboine River and ultimately to Lake Winnipeg.

“We are, by topography, the bottom of the well of all of these rivers that drain our way. That’s why it’s so important that we get this right in Manitoba,” he said.

Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc told the Free Press on Nov. 8 that his department is keeping an eye on places such as southwestern Manitoba. Though Maguire and Sopuck fear the Liberals will end the program, LeBlanc hinted that more help might come in next spring’s budget.

“The government hasn’t made any budgetary decisions, but we’re certainly aware of the concerns of the people in that region,” he said. “We’ll continue to work with other partners, to make sure we do what’s necessary to ensure that kind of freshwater is protected.”

On Nov. 14, the Liberals appointed Winnipeg South MP Terry Duguid to captain a $25.7-million initiative to protect and improve the quality of all water connected to Lake Winnipeg, where high nutrient levels feed algae blooms that foul beaches and reduce the quality of drinking water.

The Lake Winnipeg basin program was started a decade ago under the Harper government, but Duguid said he will make it “more results-oriented.”

A government report last June found that the $18 million spent on the initiative from 2012 to 2017 dropped the amount of phosphorus entering the lake by less than one per cent.

On Friday, Duguid stressed the program aims to improve the entire lake basin, which is almost one million square kilometres from the Rocky Mountains in Alberta to Thunder Bay, Ont., and as far south as South Dakota — including the small lakes in southwestern Manitoba.

“We’re going to be looking at nutrient hotspots (and) areas prone to flooding. Many of our Prairie lakes are in that boat,” he said.

He said the strategy will involve fisheries, agriculture, infrastructure and disaster relief. In January, he will meet with First Nations and Métis groups.

Duguid praised the program started by the Conservatives, but said he doesn’t know if it will be renewed.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca

RFCPP funded projects, rounds one to five (Source: Fisheries and Oceans Canada)