• Protecting Water and Farmland in Simcoe County

LETTER: MP says he’s still waiting for Liberals to reinstate Lake Simcoe Clean-Up Fund

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In Barrie
Mar 11th, 2022
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In this file photo from 2019, from left, local Conservative MPs John Brassard (Barrie-Innisfil) and Doug Shipley (Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte) announce they would reinstate the Lake Simcoe Clean-Up Fund. Shawn Gibson/BarrieToday

From OrilliaToday, March 10, 2022
A Letter to the Editor

I was pleased to read the (recent) story about the efforts of municipal councillors from across the Lake Simcoe watershed who are now calling on the Liberal federal government to honour a three-year-old commit to reinstate the Lake Simcoe Clean-Up Fund.

Just days after the 2019 federal election, I, along with Lake Simcoe-area MPs, wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asking him to keep his promise to reinstate the cancelled funding and provide $40 million for programs needed to improve the health of our watershed.

Three years later, the government has refused to act.

Canada’s Conservatives are committed to re-establishing the Lake Simcoe Clean-Up Fund and funding was an important part of our 2021 election platform. However, with zero funding since their 2019 promise, the commitment to the Lake Simcoe was not included in the Liberal election platform last September.

Community groups and individuals living around the watershed and across Simcoe County are concerned about the future off Lake Simcoe and are prepared to work together to protect this critically important resource  the jewel of Simcoe County.

The former federal Conservative government spent $59 million to create the original Lake Simcoe Clean-Up Fund, supporting several grassroots efforts that were extremely successful at cleaning up the lake and reducing phosphorus levels.

Community and environmental groups along with individuals and families who live in the Lake Simcoe area are ready to resume the hard work necessary to ensure a healthy watershed for future generations, but they can’t do it alone. It’s time for the federal government to live up to its 2019 election promise – to ensure a healthy Lake Simcoe for future generations.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland stood on the shore of Kempenfelt Bay in Barrie just days before the 2019 election advance polls and announced a $40-million fund for Lake Simcoe. This happened weeks after MPs Doug Shipley and Scot Davidson joined me on that same shore to commit to re-establishing the fund.

Sadly, the Liberal promise was nothing more than an attempt at a last-minute vote grab that they had no intention of fulfilling.

I will continue doing everything I can as Barrie-Innisfil MP, and so will every local Conservative MP, to secure federal funding for Lake Simcoe.

John Brassard
Barrie-Innisfil MP

Read the article here

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