Province announces water quality initiative

REGIONAL – The Ontario Government recently announced a commitment to improve the quality of Ontario’s water system through a new intake, which commits up to $2.58 million under the Lake Erie Agriculture Demonstrating Sustainability (LEADS) initiative.

LEADS aims to safeguard the province’s water through reducing nutrient loss, in particular, phosphorus from agriculture lands within the Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair watersheds, and improving the soil health of farmland.

To ensure the LEADS initiative is meeting its objective of environmental preservation, Toby Barrett, the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, recently held a series of virtual consultations with Ontario farmers and Rick Nicholls, MPP for Chatham-Kent-Leamington, to hear their feedback on the program.Feedback from the consultations will be used in planning the next intake.

Rick Nicholls, MPP

The meetings also included certified crop advisors, professional agrologists, Conservation Authorities and nutrient management consultants.

“Reducing the amount of phosphorus into Lake Erie is critical to having healthy water sources,” said Nicholls. “Algae blooms can be dangerous to the resources that rely on fresh water if not contained.”

“Our farmers are careful stewards of the land, and we’re committed to helping them better protect Ontario’s environment by improving water quality and soil health,” said PA Barrett. “I want to thank the many farmers who took the time to provide their thoughts and suggestions on how we can make future improvements to the LEADS initiative.”

Applications for this year’s intake of LEADS opened on January 20 and have since closed due to high interest in the program.

Since 2018, more than 730 projects have been approved under the regionally targeted LEADS initiative, with $7 million committed by the provincial and federal governments to support completion of these on-farm improvement projects.