Funding for Restoring Great Lakes Areas of Concern (Canada)

Deadline: 3-Mar-21

Through the Great Lakes Protection Initiative, the Government of Canada takes action to address the most significant environmental challenges affecting Great Lakes water quality and ecosystem health by delivering on Canada’s commitments under the Canada-United States Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.

Focus Areas

The Initiative focuses on eight priority areas for action:

Working with others to protect the Great Lakes;
Restoring Great Lakes Areas of Concern (AOCs);
Preventing toxic and nuisance algae;
Assessing and enhancing the resilience of Great Lakes coastal wetlands;
Evaluating and identifying at risk nearshore waters;
Reducing releases of harmful chemicals;
Engaging Indigenous Peoples in addressing Great Lakes issues;
Increasing public engagement through citizen science.

Objective

An objective of the GLPI is to restore the water quality and aquatic ecosystem health of Canadian Great Lakes AOCs. To assist in achieving this objective, ECCC is making funding available to support action at the local level to restore water quality and aquatic ecosystem health by completing actions identified in AOC RAPs.
The purpose of the 2021-2022 Call for Proposals is to solicit project proposals that implement actions identified in the AOCs’ most current RAPs, contributing to the restoration of Beneficial Use Impairments (BUIs) and the eventual delisting of the AOCs. Proposals must clearly demonstrate how the project will contribute to these goals.

Type of Projects

Remedial Action Plans have been developed for each Canadian Great Lakes AOC. These plans identify activities required to restore AOC water quality and aquatic ecosystem health, including projects that contribute to directly eliminating identified BUIs from the three priority areas under the AOC program, Action, Science or Engagement:

Action
- restoring degraded habitat.
- remediating contaminated sediment.
- reducing point and non-point pollution.
Science
- conducting science and monitoring to inform remedial action planning and implementation.
- surveillance and monitoring processes to track the effectiveness of remedial measures and confirm restoration of beneficial uses.
Engagement
- community engagement for decision making on RAP implementation and assessment:
  - identification of BUIs and causes.
  - determination of criteria for the restoration of beneficial uses that take into account local conditions.
  - identification of remedial measures to be taken, including identification of entities responsible for implementing these measures.
- developing and maintaining resources for RAP decision making:
  - websites.
  - social media.
  - other forums for communication supporting engagement.