2016 Meeting
Background
The fifth Rendez-vous St. Lawrence was held on October 12 and 13, 2016, in Quebec City. The theme was “Meeting the Information Integration Challenge.” The event attracted about 100 participants, including experts and representatives of communities, non-government organizations (NGOs), industry, universities and government.
The Rendez-vous St. Lawrence is one of the dissemination mechanisms for the State of the St. Lawrence Monitoring Program (SSLMP), provided for in the Canada–Quebec Agreement on the St. Lawrence 2011–2026 (St. Lawrence Action Plan). The primary objectives are to share the most recent results obtained for environmental indicators monitored as part of the program and to explore ways to improve the state of the St. Lawrence. Speakers from government and the ZIP (zone d’intervention prioritaire, or area of prime concern) committees presented the results of various activities undertaken to monitor the state of the St. Lawrence. On the second day, a discussion was held about the dissemination products to obtain feedback from the client groups.
The State of the St. Lawrence Monitoring Program, which was officially launched in 2003, enables Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and its agency Parks Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Quebec’s Ministère du Développement durable, de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques (MDDELCC) and Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs du Québec (MFFP), and Stratégies Saint-Laurent (SSL) to pool their expertise to produce data, at regular intervals, on the state of the St. Lawrence River and the changes it has undergone. The results of this monitoring program are disseminated on the St. Lawrence Action Plan website in a series of monitoring sheets, in an overview of the state of the St. Lawrence published every five years, and during the Rendez-vous St. Lawrence.