The Canwest News Service reports that, “Nearly seven months ago, Herb Gray watched as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Lawrence Cannon, met halfway across the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls and …pledged to redraft and bolster a decades-old treaty aimed at protecting the Great Lakes from environmental harm.”
The Council of Canadians commented on that pledge in a campaign blog at www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=769.
“This week, on the eve of Gray’s departure (on Thursday) after eight years as Canadian chairman of the International Joint Commission that oversees transboundary waters, he expressed frustration that the ‘very fine words’ spoken by Clinton and Cannon at the bridge ceremony in June had not yet led to the launch of formal negotiations between the two countries to modernize and strengthen the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.”
That said, “there were indications on Tuesday that the serious negotiations between the two countries being sought by Gray could soon begin. …An online information session outlining the planned review process has been organized for later this week by Canadian and U.S. government officials.”
On Thursday, Environment Canada and the United States Environmental Protection Agency will hold a binational webinar for Great Lakes partners, stakeholders and the public to inform all of the process for negotiations between the governments of the United States and Canada to amend the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
The article can be read at http://www2.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/news/story.html?id=2433945.
