In January, Great Lakes United released a report describing how governance structures have stalled progress on protecting and restoring the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River ecosystem. The report outlines a series of recommendations that will improve leadership and accountability across the basin and enhance leadership from key institutions.

A Way Forward: Strengthening Decision-Making and Accountability under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement focuses on the role and actions of the federal governments (with a particular emphasis on the Canadian government), the Binational Executive Committee, and the International Joint Commission.

The report is viewed principally through the lens of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, an historic pollution prevention document signed by Canada and the United States. A Way Forward calls for the two governments to reinvigorate leadership on clean-up and protection through the present review and possible renegotiation of the Agreement, and to fully involve the public throughout this process.

The report was co-authored by John Jackson, Clean Production Coordinator for Great Lakes United, and Karen Kraft Sloan, a former Member of Parliament and previously Canada’s Ambassador for the Environment.

Click here to read the report

Key recommendations in the report include that:

• Canada and the United States empower the Binational Executive Committee to create a comprehensive binational, basin-wide workplan to achieve the goals of the GLWQA and fully include the public in this process.

• The Prime Minister identifies or creates a Ministerial position with direct and specific responsibility for the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River basin and give a Parliamentary Standing Committee special responsibility for commenting on Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River basin matters.

• The responsible minister in Canada and the director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regularly undertake a government-wide review of basin-related programs and funding trends to ensure alignment with the basin-wide plans’ objectives.

• An All-Party Great Lakes Caucus be formed by members of Canada’s House of Commons and Senate.

• There be a more open appointment process for IJC commissioners.

• The public be more fully included in IJC board activities, including the appointment of a wider array of the Great Lakes community members to the IJC’s boards.

• Legislative hearings in Parliament and Congress be held after the release of the IJC’s biennial reports to lead to more public accountability by the federal governments.