-   Registration for the 16th annual TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup
        is now open and over 20,000 Canadians have already registered to
        clean our shorelines from September 19-27, 2009

    TORONTO and VANCOUVER, March 31 /CNW/ - A bowling pin, a parking ticket
machine, an MP3 player, a parasol, a cross country ski - and 322,780 cigarette
butts. These are just some of the items found on Canada's shorelines during
last year's TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. Registration for this year's
cleanup is now open and over 20,000 Canadians have already registered to
remove litter from nearly 600 shoreline sites, and there are still plenty of
shorelines out there that need to be cleaned.
    "Cigarette butts, plastic bags and bottles, cans, food wrappers - you
name it, it's on our shorelines," said Mary Desjardins, Executive Director, TD
Friends of the Environment Foundation. "Many Canadians are dedicated to
recycling and properly discarding their trash but our shorelines still suffer
from the actions of others. Our annual cleanup helps to put the monumental
task of removing litter from Canada's shorelines into perspective. Spending an
hour to clean up your community can make a huge difference when we do it
together."
    "Plastic debris found floating in our waterways and on our shorelines can
be fatal to marine life through ingestion or strangling," said Dr. John
Nightingale, President, Vancouver Aquarium. "It's estimated that in excess of
100,000 marine mammals a year are killed by entanglement from plastic six-pack
rings, fishing lines, nets and other stringy hazards."
    The results are in for the 2008 TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup and
it was another record breaking year:

                                                            2008        2007
    Number of Registrants                                 63,491      52,263
    Number of Registered Sites                             1,531       1,240
    Weight of Litter Removed (Kilograms)                 135,467      87,489
    Number of Garbage Bags Collected                      12,915      13,473
    Distanced Cleaned (Kilometres)                         2,152       1,772

    "We're thrilled with the continued and growing support our cleanup
receives from Canadians, but there's much more to be done," added Dr.
Nightingale. "Canada is home to the world's largest freshwater supply. We need
to keep our shorelines clean in order to preserve the beauty of our country
and to ensure the health and welfare of our wildlife, plants and other marine
life."
    The TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup is one of the largest cleanups in
the world. The national conservation initiative of the Vancouver Aquarium
encourages Canadians to have a positive impact on their local environment by
removing harmful litter from their local shorelines, including ponds, streams,
rivers, lakes and oceans. Winner of Imagine Canada's 12th Annual Canadian
Business and Community Partnership Awards, the 2009 TD Great Canadian
Shoreline Cleanup begins on International Coastal Cleanup Day, September 19,
and runs to September 27, 2009. To register, please visit www.tdgcsc.ca.

    About the TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup

    TD Bank Financial Group has been a proud sponsor of the TD Great Canadian
Shoreline Cleanup, a Vancouver Aquarium conservation program, through its TD
Friends of the Environment Foundation for more than 13 years. The Cleanup
began in 1994 as a small beach cleanup with four employees from the Vancouver
Aquarium who wanted to participate in the Ocean Conservancy's International
Coastal Cleanup. In 2008, a record-breaking 63,491 Canadians registered for
the national cleanup and removed 135,467 kilograms of garbage from 1,531 sites
spanning a collective distance of 2,152 kilometres. Now in its 16th year, this
year's TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup takes place from September 19-27,
2009. For more information or to register please visit www.tdgcsc.ca.

For further information: Jacqueline Burns, TD Bank Financial Group,
(416) 308-0177, Jacqueline.burns@td.com; Jean Fong, Vancouver Aquarium,
1-800-375-8776, shorelinemedia@vanaqua.org