Together with the Lake Winnipeg Indigenous Collective, we express our disappointment in the unexpected divestment from regional freshwater-protection initiatives – including the Lake Winnipeg Basin Program – in Budget 2022.

Our Year One report card reviews progress made by the federal government over the last year on recommendations originally presented by LWF and the Lake Winnipeg Indigenous Collective in December 2020.

Together with the Lake Winnipeg Indigenous Collective, we are asking the government to demonstrate leadership by investing in four key funding priorities originally outlined in our December 2020 joint position paper, Five Things the Federal Government Must Do for Lake Winnipeg.

Our letter to Manitoba’s newly appointed Environment, Climate and Parks Minister Jeff Wharton reiterates the urgency with which the provincial government must act to accelerate compliance with phosphorus limits at Winnipeg’s North End Water Pollution Control Centre.

Along with the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the Lake Winnipeg Indigenous Collective, we call for accelerated phosphorus compliance at Winnipeg’s North End Water Pollution Control Centre – and present concrete action the Manitoba government can take to achieve this.

Our federal policy brief highlights how phosphorus data generated by the Lake Winnipeg Community-Based Monitoring Network can support regional decision-making and funding allocation, and urges any renewed federal program to explicitly recognize the value of LWCBMN data in order to effectively complete the data-to-impact cycle.

Our submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development highlights the importance of Environment and Climate Change Canada’s existing regional water programs, and how community-based monitoring data can improve decision-making and resource allocation.

Our submission on the establishment of a Canada Water Agency emphasizes the need to strengthen existing federal programs, laws and regulations for freshwater protection. We also propose that the new agency be Indigenous-led, creating opportunities to strengthen water governance by recognizing Indigenous jurisdiction and supporting Indigenous knowledge systems.

Our submission proposed nutrient targets for Lake Winnipeg highlights the need for evidence-based, ecologically meaningful targets which can be linked to concrete timelines, and integrated with new regulatory and incentive-based action, and recommends the proposed regulation be redrafted to achieve measurable results.

Presenting to the Standing Policy Committee on Water and Waste, Riverbank Management and the Environment, we urge councillors to approve funding for interim phosphorus removal, accelerate the implementation timeline and ensure phosphorus removal is optimized in the design and construction of the new biosolids facility.