Trump’s cuts to Great Lakes research threaten freshwater for Ontarians

What began as a handshake in 2003 between the mayors of Toronto and Chicago has since evolved into one of the most significant bilateral efforts to protect the world’s largest freshwater system—the Great Lakes. Suddenly, that collaborative legacy faces serious threats.

Born from the original partnership, the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative now represents more than 230 municipalities working to protect and restore the ecosystem that sustains more than 40 million people. But at this year’s annual conference in Milwaukee, a darker undercurrent emerged: growing concern about the impacts of the current U.S. administration on freshwater protection efforts.

Mississauga Councillor Alvin Tedjo, who attended the conference, told The Pointer that the theme—“the future of fresh waters”—focused not just on environmental stewardship, but the economic consequences of inaction.

“We’ve been emphasizing economic transformation more than before due to threats from the current U.S. federal government,” Tedjo said. “It’s clear that protecting water sources isn’t enough, we must also support the communities that depend on them. Pollution and flooding pose real threats, and investing in these communities strengthens their economies, benefiting both the U.S. and Canada.”

Funding cuts made under Donald Trump’s presidency have gutted a key U.S. research lab tasked with monitoring the health of the Great Lakes, jeopardizing not only American environmental oversight but also Canada’s drinking water, climate resilience and cross-border conservation efforts.

“The Great Lakes are a shared freshwater resource between both countries. So even though we have a border, water knows no borders,” The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative’s chief development officer, Phillipe Murphy-Rheaume, said in an interview with The Pointer.

“Policies that impact whether it's Great Lakes protection or research and science, will have repercussions on both sides of the border.”

Tedjo is particularly “concerned” especially after Peel Region experienced two ‘100-year storms’ last year. “These storms caused widespread flooding, property damage, and displacement. Without research and data, we can’t properly plan or upgrade infrastructure to handle increasing extreme weather events caused by climate change.”

The Great Lakes are more than just natural wonders, they are vital economic engines and ecological lifelines. Spanning eight U.S. states and Ontario, the region forms the largest economic zone in North America, with a combined economy valued between $6 and $8 trillion.

Together, the five Great Lakes contain 21 percent of the world’s surface freshwater by volume, and 84 percent of the surface freshwater in North America.

(Visual Capitalist/Alex Varlamov/X)

All five lakes, which flow into the Atlantic Ocean, form a vital waterway that drives the regional economy, supporting more than 50 million jobs and contributing $6 trillion to the global Gross Domestic Product, according to the World Economic Forum.

“If it were a country, it would be the third-largest economy in the world. And that economy has been built on clean water—essential for industry, agriculture, and the people who live here,” the International Association for Great Lakes Research’s (IAGLR) executive director, Jerome Marty, said.

Governed by binational agreements like the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty and the 1972 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, both countries have worked together for decades to address rising pollution, industrial waste and ecosystem degradation.

The lakes support 30 million people in Canada and the U.S. and provide drinking water for more than 40 million residents. Ontario alone draws water for more than 80 percent of its population—approximately 12 million people—from the Great Lakes.

As concerns about environmental conditions and pollution grew, particularly in the 1950s due to industrial contamination, areas with high levels of environmental degradation were identified as Areas of Concerns (AOCs).  Many of these remain priorities for restoration today.

 Map illustrating Great Lakes areas of concern.

(Ontario.ca)

Just as critical work was underway, the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, run by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), lost more than a third of its staff since February and is currently unable to fill key positions due to the Trump administration’s vow to radically reduce key regulatory and oversight functions within the U.S. government. The widescale gutting of employees has been documented by media south of the border every day since Trump took office for his second term. 

The lab plays a vital role in tracking harmful algal blooms, collecting climate data and monitoring pollutants throughout the Great Lakes system.

“We are already losing vital data,” Marty warned, noting that funding cuts have also led to the complete loss of the lab’s communications staff.

“That matters because those staff were responsible for uploading data from monitoring instruments into public systems,” he explained. “Without them, municipalities and organizations can’t access real-time alerts about water toxicity from algal blooms. Not only is the raw data missing, but so is the communication expertise to interpret and share it with the public.”

The cuts stem from a Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal from Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, which calls for slashing NOAA’s programs—including those specifically focused on the Great Lakes. A previous draft budget, leaked to and first reported by ProPublica, proposed a 74 percent reduction in funding to NOAA’s research office, directly threatening the future of the Great Lakes lab.

Does it matter for Canada? 

“Absolutely,” Marty said.

“All Great Lakes science is conducted through cross-border collaboration between Canadian and U.S. teams. We have binational organizations, like the International Joint Commission (IJC), that assess progress under shared water quality agreements—how clean the water is, whether nutrient levels like phosphorus are dropping, and so on. All of this is structured to function together.”

Real-time data collection happens via monitoring buoys deployed on both sides of the border, all feeding information into shared satellite systems accessible across the basin. But with the U.S. now facing major delays in deploying its equipment, Canada is left with gaps it cannot fill.

“In Canada, we can't pick up the slack, we have our own equipment to manage. The result is delayed and incomplete monitoring, which undermines our ability to track water safety,” Marty explained.

Weather forecasting is also feeling the sting of budget cuts. U.S. meteorological models, integral to tracking storm systems across the Great Lakes, have been severely affected, raising alarms in Canada. Ontario’s weather is intricately linked to patterns in the U.S., and any disruption in American forecasting ripples across Canada.

“Just last week, Michigan experienced 10 tornadoes, never seen before, never happened before,” Marty said, explaining that the same weather system influenced conditions in Ontario, demonstrating the interconnectedness of this ecosystem.

Climate change intensifies these threats. Warmer Great Lakes fuel more frequent algal blooms and alter weather patterns. The NOAA lab has been crucial in tracking these trends.

Since the mid-90s, harmful algal blooms have resurged in Lake Erie, Huron and Ontario. Erie, the smallest and warmest lake, is most vulnerable each summer. Rising temperatures are now spreading blooms to other lakes.
 

Satellite image of Cyanobacteria bloom in Lake Erie as recorded on March 23, 2012.

(NASA)

A 2024 study by York University revealed that climate change is now driving algal blooms in Lake Superior for the first time, as cyanobacteria thrive in warmer freshwater with high nutrient levels, especially in urban and agricultural areas.

More intense storms, fueled by climate change, in the Great Lakes region are also causing higher runoff that transports nutrients from the watershed into surrounding water bodies.

Ontario Tech University’s Professor Andrea Kirkwood described Lake Ontario as “the most stressed” Great Lake, noting it receives cumulative impacts from upstream sources.

Recreational uses and stresses are higher around the coastal regions in Ontario for the Great Lakes.

(NOAA)

“While Lake Erie gets more attention for its visible algal blooms, Lake Ontario, receiving water from the upper Great Lakes, is cumulatively experiencing the most stress,” she said.

The higher frequency of algal blooms, Kirkwood said, is “impacting our understanding of how food webs are working.”

Blue-green algae blooms create dense mats that harm biodiversity by damaging fish and wildlife habitats, depleting oxygen to form dead zones, contaminating drinking water with toxins harmful to human health, causing liver damage and gastrointestinal issues and disrupting recreational activities, leading to significant environmental, economic and social impacts.

(Government of Ontario)

The lab’s workforce reduction, about 35 percent of its 52 members gone this year, with hiring freezes now in place, raises doubts about the future capacity of critical monitoring efforts.

Ontario’s Great Lakes Strategy remains outdated since its 2018–2023 review, signalling a lack of new provincial action as ongoing development projects, including multiple highway expansions and Ontario Place redevelopment, are expected to impact the health of Lake Ontario. 

Both Peel and Niagara Regions confirmed to The Pointer that they do not rely entirely on the U.S. for data.

“Ontario has its own network of laboratories and Great Lakes data information sources. Data is shared between provincial and municipal governments and water systems, and the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks conducts Lake Ontario monitoring for nutrients and algae indicators,” Peel Region’s director of water and wastewater infrastructure planning, partnerships & compliance, Elvis Oliveira, said in a statement shared with The Pointer.

“In spite of the closure of NOAA facilities, Ontario will remain well informed of algae risks through our own programs and networks. Furthermore, Peel Region has established processes for managing algae events at our water treatment facilities.”

But Ontario’s ability to respond may be constrained. A provincial ban on purchasing U.S. equipment, introduced in retaliation to Trump’s tariffs, has hampered the Ministry of the Environment’s ability to procure the scientific tools it needs.

“Much of the scientific equipment used in Ontario like probes, buoys, and parts, comes from the U.S., and now they can’t get the supplies they need. This has made it extremely difficult to calibrate and prepare monitoring equipment,” Marty noted.

“The Great Lakes are shared waters, and protecting them is a shared responsibility. They're massive bodies of water, more like inland seas, and require ocean-grade equipment and coordination. Canada alone doesn’t have the capacity to study them comprehensively without U.S. support.”

At the University of Windsor, the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research operates the Real-time Environmental Observation Network (REON), a binational project funded by both Canadian and U.S. sources to monitor water quality. But delays in U.S. funding have stalled instrument deployment and disrupted the research timeline, another example of how Trump’s actions extend beyond domestic funding cuts. Canada-U.S. agreements governing the Great Lakes have also come under his scrutiny.

Earlier this year, the U.S. President reportedly told former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that he wanted to walk away from several cross-border agreements, including longstanding pacts that dictate how the two countries jointly manage and protect Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario.

Experts say federal and provincial coordination is now critical. Murphy-Rheaume says the recent launch of the Canada Water Agency is a step forward; it’s not focused exclusively on the Great Lakes, but its mandate includes them, and it’s backed by historic funding.

“We’re seeing a federal government that’s committing resources—at historic levels—toward research, protection, and restoration of the Great Lakes,” he said.

Figures in millions (000,000s)

 In the recent federal election, the Liberal platform earmarked $115 million for freshwater protection, framing it as a national security issue.

(Chart: Anushka Yadav/Data: Liberal Party of Canada)

Can Canada go it alone if the U.S. continues to pull back funding? “That remains to be seen,” Marty says.

For Kirkwood, better monitoring has been overdue for some time.

“In the past 10 years alone, we've seen more frequent wildfires, heat waves, and polar vortex events—extreme weather is on the rise. We need to update our data to better manage these changes. It's crucial for the government to invest in better monitoring of water quality and ecosystem health,” she said. 

Historically, Canada has invested significantly less than the U.S. in Great Lakes science, an understandable gap given the difference in economic scale.

In Budget 2023, Ottawa allocated $650 million over ten years to the Freshwater Action Plan, with another $85.1 million over five years for the Canada Water Agency.

This fell far short of the $1 billion over five years Mississauga had requested, according to a motion put forward by Councillor Tedjo.

“But what’s encouraging is that freshwater is now being treated as a strategic asset in Canada,” Marty said, mentioning Canada’s investment of $420 million over 10 years towards the protection and restoration of the Great Lakes in 2024, and $115 million for freshwater over the next five years.

“Because without clean water, there’s no question that the economies will suffer. So cutting funding for science and environmental protection isn’t just short-sighted, it’s counterproductive to the very economic goals the Trump administration claims to support.” 

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