The spokesperson for United Shoreline Ontario has been appointed to an advisory group created by the International Joint Commission.
Sarah Delicate has been named to the 16-member public advisory group to help identify potential improvements to the regulation of Lake Ontario outflows.
Sarah Delicate of United Shorelines Ontario. (Photo: Quinte News)
Delicate has been hard at work since 2017 to help bring a voice representing home owners, business owners, municipalities, tourism, emergency services and others to the table.
There are eight Canadian representatives and eight American representatives named to the group, all with different and sometimes conflicting interests says Delicate, but she says she feels this group is up to face those challenges.
The group will assist the IJC’s Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Adaptive Management Committee (GLAM) with an expedited review of Plan 2014.
The IJC directed the GLAM Committee to conduct the review in response to public concerns over Plan 2014 following the record floods in 2017 and 2019, two of the three first years after the plan was adopted.
Delicate told Quinte News, Plan 2014 doesn’t function in high water.
She says it has been a painful process and the deviation has helped.
Delicate pointed out that while many have been spared from flooding this year, there are still some who are dealing with flooding and not everyone is in the clear, but it does speak to the fact Plan 2014 needs an overhaul.
She says we can do better at mitigating and managing but there is no plan to prevent flooding entirely.
Delicate feels Ontarians need a much stronger voice because there is a criteria in Plan 2014 that states when the water reaches a certain point to provide “all possible relief” and she says all possible relief has not been provided.
She noted there are two elected officials representing the American side of the Public Advisory Group and not one Canadian elected official.
Delicate hopes that more elected officials being actively engaged about Plan 2014 to be the voice of Ontarians.
The group has not held an official first meeting at this time.
