Chunks of ice float in Lake Michigan as a fisherman tries his luck off the South Pier in St. Joseph, Mich., on March 12.Don Campbell/The Associated Press
The annual Great Lakes Day in Washington has long stood as a shining example of Canada-U.S. co-operation – a convivial gathering of lawmakers and advocates from both sides of the border, coming together to shape the future of North America’s freshwater powerhouse.
At least, that’s how things used to be.
During a reception at the event earlier this month, the wonkish cross-border collegiality evaporated the moment Bernie Moreno, a Donald Trump-aligned senator from Ohio, took the floor and proceeded to berate Canada for allowing drugs into the United States.
“He gave this very combative speech that focused on fentanyl, of all things,” said Mike Shriberg, an environmental policy and planning professor at the University of Michigan who’s been attending the event for a decade. “Most people were still there with a message of unity, that was still the dominant trend, but I saw things like I’ve never seen before in terms of combativeness and aggressiveness toward Canada.”
For decades, the prosperous Great Lakes region has stood as a model of cross-border collaboration, with civil servants from both sides working together on everything from sea lamprey control to toxic algae tracking, water-quality monitoring to water-level forecasting. Together they have authored one of the world’s great environmental comeback stories.
In the 1960s, Lake Erie was declared dead and Ohio’s Cuyahoga River feeding into the Great Lakes caught fire 14 times owing to industrial pollution. The sorry state of the lakes helped spur the modern environmental movement and the 1972 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement that committed Washington and Ottawa to restore and protect the ecosystem.
But the Trump administration’s combative stand on binational relations – coupled with deep job cuts to U.S. civil servants dedicated to Great Lakes initiatives – have strained the partnership and put the region’s hard-won environmental progress at risk.
“We’re seeing a real degradation of the capacity to protect the lakes,” said Prof. Shriberg.
Scientists on either side of the border say the U.S. administration has put a freeze on cross-border communication for civil servants. Joint meetings have been cancelled or delayed and travel to Canada has been curtailed.
Gail Krantzberg, an engineering and public policy professor at McMaster University who specializes in the Great Lakes, said a cross-border science advisory board she co-chairs is uncertain how to proceed given the new political climate.
“A lot of scientists have been told ‘You’re not going to Canada and you’re not talking to Canadians,’” she said.
Those are the ones who still have jobs. Many are now unemployed, their positions eliminated through Elon Musk’s slashing of the federal work force.
Among the casualties is 10 to 20 per cent of the staff at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the agency responsible for ocean, weather and climatic forecasting.
Fifteen of the laid-off NOAA staff worked for the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, according to a letter from two members of Congress to NOAA demanding more information on the cuts. The lab monitors water quality, tracks pollution, predicts toxic algae blooms and studies fish populations with an overall goal of protecting the lakes that provide drinking water to 40 million people – including about 10 million Canadians.
It also studies how the region will fare from climate change, a phenomenon that Mr. Trump has repeatedly mocked.
“The recent layoffs jeopardize the continuity and depth of this work and could have long-term repercussions for the future of the Great Lakes and the communities that depend on them,” states the letter, signed by Michigan Representative Debbie Dingell and Ohio Representative Marcy Kaptur, both Democrats.
Mr. Musk’s chainsaw-wielding cutback have also carved hundreds of jobs from the Fish and Wildlife Service, a federal agency that is a key player in the binational effort to control the invasive sea lamprey – a major threat to Great Lakes fisheries.
Several news media reports state that 12 people from the lamprey control team have been let go, but neither the Fish and Wildlife Service nor the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, which administers the lamprey program, responded to requests for further details on the cuts.
Launched in the 1950s when the invasive sea lamprey had nearly wiped out several native Great Lakes fish species, the eradication program has reduced the lamprey population by 90 per cent. But it relies on the annual application of a chemical called lampricide to keep the parasitic fish at bay. When the COVID-19 pandemic prevented crews from applying lampricide, the populations of lampreys surged.
“This is an example of a program with a proven track record that helps our economy and our environment, and we’re leaving it in the hands of Donald Trump,” said Brian Masse, NDP MP for Windsor West who also attended Great Lakes Day.
Cuts have also targeted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where more than 1,000 scientists and other employees could be fired, according to the Associated Press. The EPA has played a key role in cleaning up the Great Lakes since the burning-river days. Last year, the agency proposed new wastewater discharge limits on toxic forever chemicals, or PFAS, that would have reduced regional waterway contamination further, but the proposal was withdrawn shortly after Mr. Trump’s inauguration.
The moves could leave a void in Great Lakes science and policy, say regional leaders, putting pressure on Ottawa to step up.
“We can’t rely on what’s going to happen in Washington every day or every week,” said Mr. Masse. “We need to take a stronger position to protect the water and the economy.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the Great Lakes Commission administers the lamprey program. The Great Lakes Fishery Commission administers the program. This version has been updated.