Farmers Help Protect Lake Simcoe

McGuinty Government Supports On-Farm Environmental Projects

Ontario is helping farmers in the Lake Simcoe region protect and restore the health of the lake.

The province is investing $3 million over four years towards the Lake Simcoe Farm Stewardship Program, which offers farmers cost-share funding to implement eligible best management practices that will address the pressures facing Lake Simcoe and the watershed.

Potential projects include:

• nutrient recovery from wastewater
• restricting livestock access to watercourses
• modifying tillage practices to reduce soil erosion
• runoff control measures
• improving on-farm storage and handling of petroleum products, pesticides and fertilizers

The program will be delivered by the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association.

In June 2008, the government announced it would provide $20 million over four years to protect the lake and its watershed through implementation of the new Lake Simcoe Protection Plan. The Lake Simcoe Farm Stewardship Program is an important part of this commitment.

QUOTES

"Farmers are the first stewards of the land, and this program will help them enhance their efforts as producers of high quality crops in a very productive agricultural area of the province."
- Leona Dombrowsky, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

"In the years to come, the success of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan will depend on programs like this one that help reduce the amount of phosphorus entering the lake from many different sources throughout the watershed. We all have a role to play."
- John Gerretsen, Minister of the Environment.

QUICK FACTS

• Agricultural production in the Lake Simcoe watershed generated close to $300 million in gross farm receipts in 2006.
• During the first year of the program, Ontario invested $750,000 in 89 voluntary environmental improvement projects completed on farms in the Lake Simcoe watershed.
• The new program is administered by the Ontario Federation of Agriculture acting on behalf of the Ontario Farm Environmental Coalition.
  

   

LEARN MORE

About the Lake Simcoe Farm Stewardship Program
About protecting Lake Simcoe

Sherry Persaud, Minister's Office, 416-326-6439
Brent Ross, Communications Branch, 416-326-9342