The Conservation Council’s Lois Corbett discussed the good news and the bad news found in the first-ever Canada Beach Report with several media outlets this week.
Lois spoke with Global News, appeared on CBC Information Morning Fredericton, CBC Information Morning Moncton, and was featured in a CBC web story.
The Canada Beach Report was a collaborative effort led by Ontario Waterkeeper with participation from the Conservation Council and a score of ENGOs across Canada. It is the first national comparison of different water quality monitoring programs and practices across Canada, based on government data from the provinces and territories.
First, the good news: Corbett told reporters the report found that more Canadians are swimming, fishing and having fun in the water than ever before.
The bad: it also revealed a glaring lack of data on recreational water quality clear across Canada.
“When you pull national data together you can see the holes and the gaps, and unless you tell that story, ‘here’s the national snapshot of freshwater beaches and salt water beaches,’ how else would you know where the gaps are in that picture,” Corbett told Global News.
The report states that New Brunswick and Saskatchewan are currently developing protocols for recreational water quality monitoring.
“It points to neighbouring provinces with good reporting standards and it helps the folks that have lagged behind, usually due to lack of resources, to catch-up a bit,” she said.
Listen the the full interview on CBC Information Morning Fredericton here:
Listen the full interview on CBC Information Morning Moncton here: