Lakes and Creeks Numbers

Canada's Navigable Waters Act offers a series of environmental protections to every lake that's big enough to float a boat. That is a lot of lakes. There are thirty-one thousand, seven-hundred-and-fifty-two lakes with surfaces greater than three square kilometres -- and you can slip a canoe onto a lot less water than that. Not to worry though. The math is about to become a lot easier. Somewhere inside the government's big new budget bill there's an amendment to the Navigable Waters Act. It will drop the number of protected lakes all the way down to...ninety-seven. That got the Ottawa Citizen's Glen MacGregor wondering what those ninety-seven lakes might have in common. We speak to Mr. MacGregor, but first though, we'll hear from someone who read his article in today's paper. Here's NDP Treasury Board Critic Charlie Angus, in Question Period.