The Trump administration plans to slash programs aimed at slowing climate change and improving water safety and air quality, while eliminating thousands of jobs, according to a draft of the administration’s Environmental Protection Agency budget proposal, obtained by The Associated Press.

The move could compromise the protection of Canadian drinking water quality, critics in Canada warn.

It’s still uncertain whether the proposals contained within the leaked document could happen. U.S. budgets differ from Canadian budgets and the U.S. Congress could decide to ignore the president’s wishes.

The proposal as written would all but eliminate funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a wide-ranging cleanup of the world’s largest surface freshwater system that has deep bipartisan support across the eight states adjacent to the lakes, from Minnesota to New York.

Proposed cuts include slashing the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative by 97 per cent to $10 million. The program has received around $300 million annually from the federal budget during former president Barack Obama’s tenure — more than $2.2 billion in all.

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Canadian observers expressed concern at details of the proposal.

Krystyn Tully, co-founder of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, a Canadian water charity working to protect Lake Ontario and the Great Lakes, is worried the cuts, if real, could lead to a reduction in water quality in the regions that border the Great Lakes.

“Assuming we can take this at face value, there’s a lot on that list that certainly set off alarm bells,” Tully said.

“The Great Lakes is one of the few regions in the world where the drinking water that we get from our taps comes from lakes where we also get our waste water, so the quality of the water is more important here than almost anywhere else.

“We need a higher standard of protection. We need more investment in water quality.”

She said Americans have been the leaders when it comes to investing in Great Lakes restoration, citing progress made in cities such as Buffalo with investments in its waterfront, which has had a ripple effect in Ontario towns.

“If they pull back on the funding, then Ontario and Canada doesn’t have a role model anymore,” Tully said. “There’s nobody really setting the standard for what should be done.”

While the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative did not specifically address the issue of lead in drinking water, other cuts contained in the proposal could reduce drinking water quality, said David Ullrich, executive director of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative.

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Under the tentative plan from the Office of Management and Budget, the EPA’s funding would be slashed by roughly 25 per cent and about 3,000 jobs would be cut, about 19 per cent of the agency’s staff.

Ullrich said the proposal “would have a devastating effect” on the work his group has done over the past five years.

“With the funding we’ve had, we’ve generated some momentum and something like this takes the wind out of your sails,” Ullrich said. “It’s going to be a long battle before this becomes final, but I think it’s important to send a clear message that this is totally unacceptable.”

Ullrich said the proposal threatens the progress his group has made to hold off invasive species, particularly Asian carp, from getting into the Great Lakes. He said the cuts could restrict the group’s efforts to continue habitat restoration and reduce the flow of nutrients into the Great Lakes, which create algal blooms.

Other proposed cuts include slashing the climate protection budget by nearly 70 per cent to $29 million, and environmental justice programs by 79 per cent to $1.5 million.

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Trump plans to submit his budget to Congress the week of March 13.

A spokesperson for the EPA declined to comment. The agency had the opportunity to respond to the initial proposal, and any final plan would be subject to congressional approval, which, likely, is months away at the earliest.

The EPA is now under the leadership of Scott Pruitt, a former state attorney general for Oklahoma, who has questioned the scientific consensus that human activities are contributing to global warming and joined lawsuits against the agency’s emission curbs.

Reacting to news of the draft budget cuts, Gretchen Fitzgerald, director of the Atlantic Canada Chapter of the Sierra Club Canada Foundation asked, “Because, who needs clean air or water?”

She said her group’s U.S. counterparts have done much needed work to reverse the wrongs inflicted upon communities disproportionately affected by pollution.

“It is alarming that cuts to environmental justice programs could hurt progress in righting these wrongs,” Fitzgerald said. “Environmental protection is a shared responsibility, and does not stop at the border. Degradation of air quality, water safety, and watersheds could hurt Canadians too.”

Sandra Cooper, mayor of the Town of Collingwood, Ont., and secretary of the Cities Initiative, said, in a statement, the Great Lakes “are part of the fabric of who we are as a people.”

“To reduce the investments so dramatically just does not make sense from an economic, environmental, or quality of life standpoint,” she said.

“Investments in the Great Lakes have been shown to deliver a 2:1 return, according to studies completed several years ago.”

The key to the success of the Trump administration’s proposal is what happens in Congress, said Kathryn Buckner, president of the Council of Great Lakes Industries.

“I expect some cuts. I don’t think any program that’s being run by the EPA is going to be immune from Mr. Trump’s red pen,” she said. “But we have a strong bipartisan coalition that supports this program so we’ll see what happens.”

Ian Hanington of the David Suzuki Foundation, questioned the administration’s budget priorities: “Spending money to keep outdated sunset industries alive and to boost global conflict through military build-ups, while people lack access to clean air and water and face an uncertain future because of climate change, is unconscionable,” he said in a statement.

“It’s time for people to demand that governments work for those they were elected to serve, and not corporations focused on profit, regardless of the damaging consequences.”

With files from the Associated Press

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