Region of Peel Council approves investment to fight global warming

For Immediate Release:
Monday, February 19, 2007

Region of Peel Councillors from Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon voted unanimously to approve an in-year increase to Credit Valley Conservation (CVC) and Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) of $2.5 million each for 2007. This is the Region’s initial response to fight global warming while a larger response is being developed. Mississauga Councillors led by Mayor Hazel McCallion and Pat Mullin, (Chair of CVC), championed a preliminary global warming response with enhanced funding to go to flooding and erosion; water quality and quantity; and ecosystems - all areas that will be directly impacted by global warming.

These are the core areas where the funding will be spent:

Some of Cooksville Creek in southern Mississauga is flood prone. To monitor the creek, CVC will be installing real-time cameras. As well, additional climate monitoring stations will be established in Peel.

An additional 10,000 of large stock trees will be planted by CVC with the help of Mississauga and Brampton high school students. The students will use their community service hours to get these trees in the ground that will reduce carbon emissions. CVC plants about 40,000 trees per year but with the funding will be able to increase this number substantially.

Solid surfaces, such as asphalt roads and parking lots negatively impact water quality and quantity in urban areas. In global warming scenarios, water quality and quantity problems will intensify. The Credit River (described as the healthiest river in the GTA) does not meet provincial water quality guidelines for total phosphorus and nitrate and is not suitable for swimming. Undoubtedly the poor quality of river water in the GTA in general, is a part of the growth of algae on Lake Ontario. CVC and our partner municipalities will be retrofitting existing urban areas to reduce these solid (impervious) surfaces and in newly developed areas will be encouraged to follow "low impact development techniques" such as disconnecting downspouts, creating water infiltration basins, pervious pavement (it allows water to filter into the ground instead of washing away into the sewer system), etc. You can help by decreasing water consumption, creating rain gardens, using rain barrels, using pervious pavement in driveways and encouraging low impact development in any new housing developments.

The Credit River boasts the most diverse coldwater fishery in Ontario (trout and salmon) - if not eastern North America. This fishery will be under threat of warming water temperatures and in order for this important resource to survive, fish need to be able to migrate to cold water pools. With more than 450 dams on the Credit many of these structures need to be assessed for removal or fish ladders created. Planting along stream beds will help reduce local water temperatures.

Plants and animals will be attempting to move northward and are currently obstructed by roads and urban infrastructure. Continuous corridors of connected greenspace will be necessary. This will require careful planning and protection of additional lands in public ownership whose primary purpose is to protect core ecosystems. CVC currently protects about 5,000 acres of core greenland in public ownership. CVC in partnership with the Region of Peel hopes to increase these conservation areas by another 5,000 acres in the next 20 years- a daunting and expensive undertaking.

If you would like to help by providing funding to plant a tree, securing environmentally significant land, retrofitting urban areas, planting stream corridor buffers, or preserving wetlands in the Mississauga, Brampton or Caledon areas please contact Terri Leroux at Credit Valley Conservation Foundation (905-670-1615 ext 242). A tax receipt can be provided.

Conservation Authorities are a provincial/ municipal partnership. The CVC was established by an Act of the province in 1954 with a mandate to protect all natural resources other than minerals in the area drained by the Credit River which included much of Caledon, Brampton and Mississauga. We have been working for over 50 years with our partner municipalities and stakeholders to protect and enhance the natural environment of the Credit River Watershed for present and future generations.

The Credit Valley Conservation Foundation is a not- for -profit Foundation to raise money for the Conservation Authority currently supplementing such CVC work as reforestation.