DEAR GREAT LAKES STAKEHOLDER: The U.S. and Canadian Federal governments, as the Parties to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (the Agreement), have begun the process of reviewing the operation and effectiveness of the Agreement. This review (the Review) is required under Article X of the Agreement. As past reviews have shown, this exercise will be an intensive undertaking. In order to insure its success, the Review will require the cooperation and involvement of a variety of public and private sector Great Lakes Basin Stakeholders from the U.S. and Canada (applications and additional information are included in the attached PDF file). The importance of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement is widely recognized. It commits the two countries to restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the waters of the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem and has been held up as a successful model of Canada-United States partnership, showing that bilateral cooperation is strong, effective and productive. The Review of the Agreement will help to insure that it continues to fulfill this role well into the future. The Parties have also committed to an open, transparent and inclusive review process which allows for the involvement of all interested parties. To this end, the Great Lakes Binational Executive Committee (BEC) agreed at its February 8-9, 2006 meeting that the BEC Co-chairs would solicit both broad public stakeholder and government agency interest in participating in the Review through membership on a number of Review Working Groups (RWGs) which are described in the attachment. The work of the RWGs will commence in late April 2006 and continue to the end of Calendar Year 2006. Participation will require a commitment to review particular aspects of the Agreement (as outlined in the attachment) and to attend regularly held conference calls (i.e. monthly or bimonthly), as well as the potential of attending a small number of in-person meetings. We also ask that those wishing to be involved provide some information on their background and level of expertise in the subject-matter relating to the Review Working Group in which they wish to participate. Should you wish to be involved in the Review through participation in a Review Working Group, please complete the attached membership form and return it to either the Canadian or U.S. member of the Agreement Review Committee Secretariat (as appropriate) by no later than March 31,2006. Thank you in advance for considering your participation in this very important effort to insure the continued binational stewardship of the Great Lakes. |-------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------| | | | | | (Embedded image moved to file: pic04632.jpg) | | | | | | | | | | | (for) | | | | | | (Embedded image moved to file: | | | pic25808.jpg) | | |-------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------| | Thomas V. Skinner | Pradeep Kharé | | U.S. Co-Chair | Canadian Co-Chair | | Binational Executive Committee | Binational Executive Committee | | | | |-------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------| (See attached file: Public RWG Membership Solicitation -16March2006.pdf)
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Public RWG Membership Solicitation -16March2006.pdf
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