Project Summary

Challenge: Inspire a major city to convert former industrial lands into natural habitat with healthy wetlands.

Plant over 84,100 native aquatic plants on the waterfront site.
Develop a numerical water-quality model for the Credit River watershed.
Conduct community stewardship training to help residents identify and report birds and fish attracted to the new wetland as part of an impact monitoring program.
Conduct community stewardship training to help residents prevent household pollution from contaminating the new wetland.

Overview

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The City of Mississauga is rethinking its relationship to Lake Ontario and how it can connect people to its waterfront. Now as part of the Great Lakes Challenge, and with support from The W. Garfield Weston Foundation, the city will transform its waterfront with the Jim Tovey Lakeview Conservation Area.

Credit Valley Conservation Authority, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and the Region of Peel are embracing this waterfront renewal and creating a shoreline to mimic the original natural environment.

The conservation area is taking shape where the former Lakeview coal-fired power plant formerly dominated the Mississauga waterfront. It left a legacy of hardened shorelines, contaminated lands, damaged fish populations and left little habitat for migrating waterfowl.

As part of this project, Credit Valley Conservation Authority and Great Lakes Challenge have the opportunity to develop a water-quality model for the Credit River watershed. The data will inform ongoing restoration and protection activities, ensuring the environmental benefits of the Jim Tovey Lakeview Conservation Area are fully realized.

The new wetlands will be a showpiece for any Great Lakes communities looking to restore or create coastal wetlands.