Six Conservative members of parliament have signed a letter addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, urging the federal Liberal minority government to re-establish the Lake Simcoe Clean-up Fund.
“During the recent election campaign, both the Conservative Party of Canada and the Liberal Party of Canada committed to the re-establishment of the Lake Simcoe Clean-Up Fund,” the letter reads.
“$59 million was invested from 2007 to 2017 by the previous Conservative Government.”
For the last two years, the Lake Simcoe Clean-up Fund has been absent under Liberal leadership.
On Oct. 9, Chrystia Freeland, Liberal MP for University–Rosedale, came to Barrie to announce a plan to clean up and restore Lake Simcoe with two other local Liberal candidates.
This announcement came after the Conservative party announced its commitment to re-instate the fund.
“The re-establishment of the Lake Simcoe fund was mentioned specifically in our plan,” Barrie–Innisfil MP John Brassard told Global News.
According to Brassard, keeping Lake Simcoe clean is important to surrounding communities for several reasons. For one, many watersheds flow in and out of the lake, which is also a source of drinking water, economic opportunity, recreation and tourism.
“A healthy and sustainable Lake Simcoe ecosystem is important to the entire region of central Ontario,” Brassard said.
“This is not something that people in this area take lightly.”
In the letter, the six MPs asked that funding for the re-establishment of the Lake Simcoe Clean-up Fund be included in the budget as soon as possible.
“The governance model for the fund worked very well to achieve the results it did from 2007-2017,” the letter reads.
“We respectfully request that the governance and funding model which provided oversight and allocated money for the Lake Simcoe Clean-Up Fund be the exact same model to what was in place.”
Caroline Theriault, the deputy communications director for Canada’s environment and climate change minister, confirmed with Global News that the federal government will be moving forward with an environmental clean-up fund, which was promised in the Liberals’ platform.
“Lake Simcoe would be 100 per cent eligible for that funding,” Theriault said.
“Ultimately, the funding decisions are going to be up to the new cabinet and treasury board, but the fund was set up exactly for the kinds of projects like Lake Simcoe.”
The environmental clean-up fund isn’t up and running yet, Theriault said.
“It’s a new thing that we promised, and then once we are up and running again, then that’s something that we would be…bringing to life.”
Brassard said he hand-delivered the letter to the prime minister’s office on Wednesday afternoon but that he hasn’t heard a response yet.
“We do expect a response from the prime minister,” the Barrie–Innisfil MP said.
“Sending a letter to the prime minister not only indicates how important this issue is but also makes him accountable for the promise that representatives from his party made.”
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