Resource Governance of the St.Lawrence River

The St.Lawrence River is situated in eastern Canada and passes through the provinces of Quebec and Ontario in the Great Lakes. It is also part of the boundary that seperates Canada and the USA. The river not only links the two countries to the Atlantic Ocean as a water highway but it is in an important part of Canadian socio-economics and also provides the USA a foundation for industry. The key decision makers concerning the St.Lawrence River fall to the Canadian Federal Government, the Province of Quebec and the government of the United States of America(https://www.ec.gc.ca/stl/).

Since this land feature is integral to all who use it, the International Joint Comission(IJC), a bi-national organization including Canada and the USA, was developed and it is concerned with water level management of the St.Lawrence River. This international agreement has gone on to establish the International St.Lawrence River Board of Control to oversee the condition of the river itself. (Environment Canada, “Managing the St.Lawrence”, Youtube Oct.23,2014). Through this initiative the Moses-Saunders Power Dam was constructed which was intended for commercial navigation and hydro-electric power however it has been able to adequately manage the St.Lawrence water level as well(http://www.opg.com/generating-power/hydro/ottawa-st-lawrence/Pages/rh-saunders-station.aspx). The International St.Lawrence River Board of Control is able to constantly monitor the river by means of incorporating air/water temperature, humdity, and precipitation into computer models. These models are important as they allow predictions of water levels and flows as well as water quality fluctuations which users of the river must adhere to. Within Canada there is also a concentrated effort within federal and provincial governments to work together in maintaining the integrity of the St.Lawrence river for all parties involved be that civilians for recreational use and industry for economic reasons. One such effort is the St.Lawrence Plan 2005-2010. This agreement between the government of Canada and Quebec seeks to manage the river in a way that ties together environmental, economic and community concerns through integrated governance (St.Lawrence Plan For a Sustainable Development). It took 15 years of discussion and debate for the Government of Quebec(GQ) to release the Quebec Water Policy Act and for the Government of Canada(GC) to subsequently launch Ecosystem Initiatives, Canada’s Oceans Strategy and the Policy and Operational Framework for Integrated Management of Estuarine, Coastal and Marine Environments in Canada. Together these authoritative bodies were to enact the St.Lawrence Plan and as such adhere to four core principles:

1)Integrated Management of the St.Lawrence

2) Social Commitment

3) Ecological Integrity

4)Environmentally Responsible Economic Activities

The first of these principles sought to revamp members of the Intergovernmental Working Group on Integrated Management of the St.Lawrence(IWG-IMSL) with representatives from various governmental departments from both GQ & GC such as Environment Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Ministere des Transports du Quebec. This was done in order to provide a social consensus that incorporated information from both bio-physical and socio-economic aspects of the river.  The second principle, Social Commitment, attempted to bring more awareness and share more knowledge with the communities situated along the course of the river. Ecological Rehabilitation Action Plans(ERAPs) were established for riverside communities which enabled concerned partners to seek financial, scientific and technical support. This is an involving process that allows public participation from the local people along the St.Lawrence river to take action on environmental remediation projects that may occur. This principle also touches upon how government scientists and other professionals working along the St.Lawrence have an immense amount of data and knowledge regarding the state of the river. They also readily share this information on-line creating a transparent overview of their findings. However the partners of the St.Lawrence Plan are well aware that sometimes this information isn’t so easily understood from a general public viewpoint. That being the case throughout the time frame of the plan the partners involved are attempting to break down the misunderstanding that may occur with reading scientific reports by making the reports more eligible for public and government decision makers. The third principle is in regards to Ecological Integrity. Proponents of the Plan identify that human caused pressures on the environment lead to habitat fragmentation and loss of species that hinder the ecosystem balance. The goal for this aspect of the Plan is to gain a more thorough understanding of the transformations that may occur in the St.Lawrence River. The last principle, Environmentally Responsible Economic Activities, works toward making agricultural practices and navigational activities more environmentally respectable. This means reducing agricultural pollution that runs off farmland in to the river on top of enforcing better commercial and recreational navigation operations. The St.Lawrence plan seeks to involve not only the departments and agencies listed earlier with these 4 core principles but also Parks Canada, Public Works and Government Services Canada, Ministere des Ressources naturelles et de la Faunce du Quebec, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Although this plan was the result of extensive communication and effort from the governments involved, the time frame for the St.Lawrence Plan was 2005-2010. Hence a more recent initiative has been put into place that being the St. Lawrence Plan Action Plan 2011-2026(https://www.ec.gc.ca/nature/default.asp?lang=En&n=A642EE65-1). This plan recognizes three main points that somewhat overlap with the previous plan

1)Biodiversity conservation

2)Improved water quality

3)Sustainable Use

This appears to be a more minimalistic plan compared to the previous one. Whether this has to do with the governments in parliament at the time of implementation is something that requires more research on my end. However this plan still has the same integrated-management as the St.Lawrence Plan before it.

 

In conclusion it appears that the St.Lawrence Plan 2005-2010 provided foundation for an encompassing socio-economic approach for taking care of the St.Lawrence River. That being the case it appears that the updated Action plan is not as detailed as the previous St.Lawrence Plan from 2005-2010. If there were any glaring oversights in regards to the course of action for maintaining the integrity of the St.Lawrence then I would say that not considering all the components holistically is a slight oversight. The principles/guidelines should be considered all together rather than individually such as Ecological Integrity and Environmentally Responsible Economic activities. As we talked about in class, Loch Brown consistently touched upon that it is pivotal for the government to realize that the ecological health of the environment is in direct relation to economic events. Both reports did not seem to acknowledge this crucial piece of knowledge. Hopefully further research into the St.Lawrence could provide some assurance that users are vying for this holistic outlook to take precedence sooner rather than later.