Item - 2019.IE5.8

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee recommends that:

1. City Council authorize the General Manager, Toronto Water to negotiate, and enter into a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") with the Regional Municipality of Peel and the Regional Municipality of Durham or other form of agreement as may be necessary, on terms and conditions satisfactory to the General Manager, Toronto Water and in a form satisfactory to the City Solicitor, in order to jointly develop, implement, administer and share costs for a Lake Ontario based monitoring, information management, and forecasting system (the “Monitoring System”), covering the lake-based source waters for the water treatment plants of the three municipalities, as set out in the Credit Valley-Toronto and Region-Central Lake Ontario (CTC) Source Protection Plan pursuant to the Clean Water Act, 2006. 

2. City Council authorize the General Manager, Toronto Water to enter into any other agreements with any Lake Ontario Collaborative Group members or other partners as may be necessary to support the implementation and operation of the Monitoring System, on terms and conditions satisfactory to the General Manager, Toronto Water and in a form satisfactory to the City Solicitor.

3. City Council, with respect to amendments to the Toronto and Region Assessment Report and the Credit Valley-Toronto and Region-Central Lake Ontario (CTC) Source Protection Plan proposed by the CTC Source Protection Committee, delegate authority to the Deputy City Manager, Infrastructure and Development Services, in consultation with the General Manager, Toronto Water, and the Toronto Medical Officer of Health to:

a. authorize the release, for the purposes of public consultation, amendments unrelated to source waters relied on by the City of Toronto;

b. approve groundwater based amendments unrelated to source waters relied on by the City of Toronto.

4. City Council direct the City Clerk to forward this item to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.

This Staff Report is to request City Council authorization to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") with the Regional Municipality of Peel and the Regional Municipality of Durham to undertake tasks and to share costs associated with the implementation and operation of a Lake Ontario based monitoring, information management, and forecasting system (the “Monitoring System”), covering the Lake Ontario based source waters for the water treatment plants of the three municipalities. The three municipalities will jointly develop, fund, administer and implement infrastructure, instrumentation, equipment and tools to monitor lake circulation and water quality and assist in forecasting impacts of contaminant spills which will guide emergency spills response and water treatment plant operations.  

The purpose of the Monitoring System is defined in the Province of Ontario’s Credit Valley-Toronto and Region-Central Lake Ontario (CTC) Source Protection Plan (‘The Plan’).

This Staff Report also requests staff authority to release amendments to any Toronto & Region Assessment Report and CTC Source Protection Plan proposed by the CTC Source Protection Committee where the amendment is unrelated to source waters relied upon by the City of Toronto.