Canadian Heritage Committee on Dec. 1st, 2011

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

You have 30 seconds.

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

Two summers ago, my son Hart, 23, got himself a job on Maligne Lake as a tour guide. They trained him to pilot a boat, and he spent the whole summer in this most beautiful part of Canada. I think it changed him. I think he felt more Canadian. I think he felt more connected to our environment and the land.

I would just like to see more young people with those kinds of opportunities. Do you have any ideas or any programs to help get our young people who are out of high school and ready to become explorers--and Xplorers is the name of a program, I know--see more of our national parks, particularly the ones in the Rocky Mountains?

[Andrew Campbell]

That's an excellent question, Mr. Young. Thank you very much.

We hire about 1,200 students a year at Parks Canada. The student workforce is an important piece of our workforce across the country, but on top of that, we've done a few things. We've been working on a program called “Canada's Greatest Summer Job”. Their primary job is to explore a park--we break ourselves into what are field units, so that's a park and normally a few historic sites within it. Those youths go out and share that experience through our social media channel. A year ago, they did 100 YouTube videos to try to encourage other youth like themselves to have that experience, to come out to work, live, or vacation in those areas. That has been highly successful.

When the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited this past year, one of the legacies of their visit was the establishment of the Parks Canada youth ambassadors program. Two youth ambassadors will promote these natural and cultural treasures to the youth of Canada, under the title of ambassador from the duke and duchess. So we're trying to encourage this through social media and other types of channels and also have ambassadors who can do that on our behalf.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. Young.

Ms. Boutin-Sweet.

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

Good morning. Thank you very much for being here.

I'd like to continue on the topic of education. That seems popular today. A few weeks ago, I went to visit a primary school. In my riding, Hochelaga, neither the schools nor the people are very rich. And so I asked the teacher what the federal government could do to help them. She replied that certain federal institutions could be opened up to local schools and offer them free visits.

You gave me an idea earlier when you talked about groups from the 8th grade, I believe, who were going to visit certain institutions.

[Andrew Campbell]

My Parks Canada Pass.

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

Excuse me?

[Andrew Campbell]

It's a program called My Parks Pass.

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

I was wondering if it would be possible to suggest a similar idea, to offer free visits to local schools for the 150th anniversary?

During that same afternoon I went to visit the Régie des installations olympiques, the Olympics Installations Board, and I asked the director whether free activities were being offered to local schools. He replied that he did not have the money to do that. If I'm not mistaken, Parks Canada administers the Biodome, does it not?

[Andrew Campbell]

Yes.

It isn't that easy to offer free admission because of various factors. It is not specifically because of the federal government. Let me give you the example of a school very close to here, attended by students from the Vanier neighbourhood. It is not really a very rich neighbourhood. The director of that school told me that there were three factors that had to be taken into consideration, one being the cost of the Parks Canada visit. From time to time we can offer free visits to school groups that request them. However, there are two other factors that must be considered when students have to leave the school premises. First, there has to be additional insurance for the class, which is quite expensive. Then there is the cost of transportation between the school and the park they are visiting.

We are currently creating a program with Minister Kent, in partnership with the private sector and non-government organizations. This is a program that would offer a free day to classes of students. The simple fact of waiving the cost of a visit to Parks Canada does not solve that problem completely. I think this is an excellent initiative the minister launched a few months ago.

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

I agree that the cost of bus transportation generally represents the largest part of the cost of an activity. But for local schools where bus transportation is not required, could we consider this type of local initiative, in the case of the 150th anniversary, for instance?

[Andrew Campbell]

I think for an event such as Canada's 150th anniversary, that could be a part of it.

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

Have you thought of any other projects for the greater Montreal area, or for Quebec in general?

[Andrew Campbell]

In Montreal, currently, part of our objective is to hold more activities in the Lachine Canal sector, in order to foster a greater sense of belonging to Canada among Montrealers. We have a lot of land close to the Lachine Canal, and of course there are a lot of people who use it for their leisure activities. And so it is important for us to focus on that area to create a connection between the population of Montreal and Canada in general.

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

Do you already have an idea of how you would like to—

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Ms. Boutin-Sweet.

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Those five minutes go pretty fast.

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Mr. Calandra.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

Thank you very much.

You talked briefly about the Rouge Park. Since it obviously impacts my riding quite substantially, I'll say this. There have been a lot of people for a lot of years who have talked about how important the environment is, and who have talked about how they are advocates for preserving and protecting important national heritage features and sites, but the history of that particular area for farmers has been less than stellar. Those very same people who talk a good game about the environment have been devastating for the class 1 farmers.

That's actually class 1 farmland we're talking about in that area, and the current administration in that area has in the past taken close to 50% of the class 1 farmland out of commission and reforested it, often without consulting with farmers, so I'm happy that Parks Canada is assuming a leadership role in how we will bring about a Rouge Park.

That's more of a comment than anything, because the farmers I represent, with their hundreds of acres of class 1 farmland, some of the best farmland in all of southern Ontario, certainly aren't going to allow a park to be created that doesn't protect class 1 farmland. But I know that we will be working very closely in the coming months to make sure that we protect class 1 farmland within the context of a Rouge Park.

I want to talk about national historical sites and how, in the context of Canada's 150th anniversary, we can perhaps promote them. I'd just like to ask you, on national historical sites, do you connect with local museums in and around the area? If you don't, can we? Can we do that better as we lead up to Canada's 150th birthday? Even just in small areas, like where I'm from just north of Toronto, Stouffville, where we have a number of national historical sites close by.... How do we increase people's knowledge of what a site represents and get people to it? Because you don't have to go that far to actually enjoy one of these places, but I think a lot of times people forget them.

[Andrew Campbell]

Those are both great questions and excellent comments about the Rouge.

I'd like to say a word about the Rouge and the agricultural community. We've met with many of the families now, and with the York Federation of Agriculture, the Durham Federation of Agriculture, and the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. I think we'll have an outstanding interpretative offer in the agricultural world; we will be able to show people something of the history and current state of Canadian farming. They've been a fantastic group of people to work with. I think we're in good hands. There has long been a sustainable agriculture in that area, and we will be able to demonstrate that to Canadians. We will also have some food security in and around Toronto, which is an important element for all of our sustainability. So I'll start with that.

Right now, we are members of what are called the family of national historic sites, which often include small museums in provinces. We give a lot of help from a collections management perspective to many of those smaller national historic sites and smaller museums. We have standards for collections management that many of them use. We have standards for the protection of their places, so that they don't have to buy the same architectural and engineering services. We've essentially given them a blueprint on how to do that. So we're involved in that community all across the country.

I think the final point that you mentioned was just on the “enjoy”. That's what we are trying to promote within national historic sites. We did a piece of research on barriers to why people don't go to parks and national historic sites, and it amazed us that a lot of people didn't feel they had the skill or knowledge to come to a national historic site. We thought we would get that on the national park side, but a lot of Canadians feel that they need some pre-knowledge to come to national historic sites.

I think we have to start emphasizing the fun and enjoyment elements so that people come out. We've done a few pilots in this area. Fort Rodd Hill is an example. We moved visitation from 40,000 people there to almost 70,000 in one year by making more enjoyable things. They now have things such as an historic half-marathon, where you run around the fort and then do an interpretive program. We now do historic weddings there, along with other things that bring some of that fun element back.

You can learn and have fun at the same time. I think this has been an important lesson for us to learn, i.e., that people think the velvet rope stops you from going. Getting in there and being immersed and using things has been a highly important element for making our national historic sites more relevant to Canadians.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. Calandra.

Did you have as question, Mr. Benskin?

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

There are two things. All of us, because of our constituencies, talk about things that connect to us. The Lachine Canal runs right through my riding of Jeanne-Le Ber, which is southwest Montreal. There's a lot of concern from the population, because they use it a lot, about protecting that area and making sure it's still accessible.

There has been a lot of discussion about schools, connecting with schools. I'd like to take that a step farther and ask you about outreach initiatives to youth programs. There are a number of programs in my riding. Many young people have never set foot outside their community, outside Verdun or Pointe-Saint-Charles, but there's one program where they make an effort to do that.

For the life of me, though, I can't remember the name. It's a youth drop-in centre, but at the heart of it is fly-fishing. On the third floor they have banks where kids can make their own flies. These are kids who, up until then, have never stepped out. They raise money themselves, they sell things, and they makes flies and sell them so that they can put money together and go out to various parks. They don't stay in hotels; they camp out. They have an agreement with Mountain Equipment Co-op, which provides the waders and everything they need. I'm just wondering if any work is being done by Parks Canada to reach out to these types of programs and give them access to parks around Canada.

[Andrew Campbell]

That's an excellent question.

It's an approach that we're actually very proud of, and certainly, again, a very large focus of Minister Kent is on this youth connection. Really, part of our vision as Parks Canada as well has been to carry that youth vision through. Through meeting with a large number of different groups across the country, and we have a few that we are trying to see how.... There are very many youth-oriented groups and there are social advocacy groups on behalf of youth as well.

A few of the things that we have been doing are starting to work. One is a project in Montreal, Vancouver, and downtown Toronto. In partnership with Bienenstock Natural Playgrounds, we're working with people who are green-spacing some of the urban parks. What they do is turn a concrete playground pad into something that looks somewhat natural.

We are working with them to recreate themes of national parks so that those national parks have an immediate connection with that local community. For instance, in Moss Park, which is the Toronto park we're doing, we're going to take the youth group and their youth leaders to the Bruce Peninsula, where they can look around and see the elements they like. We will give them that immersion experience and then they will come back and be the ambassadors in their community.

We're working on programs like that. We're working with other foundations that are working with those types of programs. The Weston Foundation is one of the big partners we're working with, because they fund a large number of those getting outdoors types of programs. We're a big supporter of the Robert Bateman Get to Know program as well, because they partner into school groups and community areas. It's virtually impossible for us to do this alone. A partnership is really the way to move forward on that.