Progress

A resilient system of Great Lakes coastal wetlands that is able to function within an extended range of variability, supports diversity of wetland types throughout the region, and adapts to changing climatic and hydrologic conditions.

Objective: reach Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) action plan II and III annual coastal wetland acreage target values

Metric: total coastal wetland acreage protected, enhanced, or restored by GLRI projects.

In 2018, an estimated 193 different cruise itineraries and carried 177,000 cruise passenger across the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River.

Over the past ten years, the tonnage of containerized cargo handled at Maritime Transportation System (MTS) ports has grown by 29%. In 2018, about 14.6 million metric tonnes of containerized cargo was handled at MTS ports. Currently, Montreal and Cleveland have regularly-scheduled container shipping services, and Montreal is the MTS’ main container terminal, handling 99% of the system’s containerized cargo.

The reliable and efficient operation of the locks on the St. Lawrence Seaway and at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan (Soo Locks) is critically important to the movement of cargo on the Maritime Transportation System (MTS). The St. Lawrence represents the system’s connection to the world and the Soo Locks control the key connection point between Lake Superior and the rest of the MTS, enabling mined commodities including taconite to reach the steel mills and manufacturing plants in the southern portions of the MTS. The three lock-controlled sections of the MTS are shown on the map below.

Green Marine is a voluntary environmental certification program for the maritime industry which is endorsed by a wide range of environmental groups and governments, including the Nature Conservancy of Canada and Environmental Defense Fund. Program participants such as shipowners, ports, terminals, Seaway corporations, and shipyards benchmark their annual environmental performance through exhaustive self-evaluation guides, which cover 12 performance indicators.

In 2017, an estimated 194 million metric tonnes worth about $73 billion USD ($95 billion CAD) were carried on the Maritime Transportation System. This includes the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Seaway, and St. Lawrence River downstream to Les Escoumins, QC. The figures below illustrate how this cargo tonnage and value was broken down by different commodities.

Tracking regional consistency in regulatory policies to restrict the sale, possession and transport of priority aquatic invasive species.