Environment Minister Hon. David Anderson Visits NWRI

Minister Anderson visited NWRI-Burlington while he was in Hamilton for the Managing Shared Waters Conference. During his keynote address at the conference, Minister Anderson noted:

"The NWRI has shown leadership in key areas. These include, cleaning-up Areas of Concern, developing Lake-wide Management Plans, managing sediment, and reducing municipal point source pollution.

Looking ahead, the NWRI also has the potential to show global leadership in the science of water resource management and I am committed to ensuring that the role of NWRI continues to grow and strengthen.

Under the theme of International Cooperation, Minister Anderson emphasized the enhanced role that the UNEP GEMS/Water Programme at NWRI would have:

"Canada is committed to ensuring that global capacity needs are enhanced. We want to boost this effort by pursuing a partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) that would create a permanent home for the Global Environment Monitoring System (GEMS) Water Program. The NWRI is a natural choice.

We look forward to the opportunity to apply this national asset towards the goal of assisting other governments in developing systems for their own use. We want to ensure that we focus on those countries with the most pressing capacity needs.

Our partnership with UNEP will include a target to increase the number of participating countries so that within 5 years, 35 additional developing countries will be participating in the GEMS/Water Program."

During his visit to NWRI on 24 June 2002, the Minister met with senior managers, as well as with many staff during a tour of Dr. Claude Rouleau's whole-body autoradiography laboratory.

Minister Anderson and Mr. Andy Fraser, Program Manager, UNEP GEMS/Water Collaborating Centre.

Dr. Claude Rouleau, NWRI Research Scientist, demonstrates the cutting edge cryomicrotome in his whole-body autoradiography laboratory.

Minister Anderson meets research, technical and administrative staff at NWRI.

Rt. Hon. Herb Gray's Visit to NWRI

The Rt. Hon. Herb Gray spent a couple of hours with NWRI researchers being briefed on health and environment issues related to Great Lakes Areas of Concern, on Lakewide Management Plans and on emerging chemicals of concern. Mr. Gray also toured some of the major projects and equipment in the Hydraulics Laboratory.