Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to express my support for Bill S-15, the expansion and conservation of Canada's national parks act.
In 2011, the Government of Canada made a commitment in its Speech from the Throne to create significant new protected areas. The bill before us would deliver on that commitment by amending the Canada National Parks Act to protect Sable Island National Park Reserve of Canada as Canada's 43rd national park.
This initiative has garnered a high level of support in Nova Scotia, including among the Mi'kmaq. In fact, we are establishing Sable Island as a national park reserve out of respect for the ongoing negotiations under the Made-in-Nova-Scotia Process. A national park reserve enjoys the same protections that a national park does while respecting assertions of first nations rights.
For many Nova Scotians, Sable Island is a mystical but real far-off place. A unique sandbar island, it is 42 kilometres long and 1.3 kilometres across at its widest point. It is home to some 190 plant species, including 20 that have restricted distribution elsewhere. It is perhaps best known for its herd of over 500 wild horses, one of the few herds in the world that remains entirely unmanaged. It was the future of those very horses that sparked the first efforts to conserve Sable Island that today culminates in this legislation.
In reaction to plans in 1960 to remove the wild horses from Sable Island, schoolchildren from across Canada raised petitions, and petitioned the House of Commons. Canada came to the defence of those schoolchildren and the horses on Sable Island. In 1961, the government of the day, the government of the Right Hon. John Diefenbaker, passed regulations protecting the horses and protecting the seeds for the long-term protection of this unique and fabled landscape.
Now, 50 years later, this chamber can help complete the work started by hundreds of schoolchildren decades ago by passing legislation to permanently protect Sable Island as part of Canada's world-class national parks system.
There have been 350 shipwrecks recorded on Sable Island and in the vicinity of Sable Island, earning it the title of the graveyard of the Atlantic. In the past, life-saving stations, lighthouses and shelters for shipwrecked sailors were established, and today the island is used for scientific research and monitoring activities such as weather forecasting and wildlife research.
I stand proudly to debate Bill S-15 today because I am probably one of the few parliamentarians in this chamber who has ever had the pleasure of setting foot on Sable Island. I have been to Sable Island probably 25 or 30 times when I worked in the offshore. We used to fly to the rig in a fixed-wing airplane that took the mail to Sable Island, land on the beach, get transferred over to the helipad and then transfer to the rig from there. I can speak with some authority to the uniqueness of Sable Island, of the shipwrecks that are on it, of the horses that are there. Those horses are very much believed to be descendants of the original horses that were taken during the expulsion of the Acadians.
During the expulsion of the Acadians in 1755, horses and cattle and pigs were gathered up and put on Sable Island. The pigs quickly destroyed the trees that were still on the island at that time and they were later butchered and taken off. The cattle were used to provision the fishing fleet and the British navy and the horses themselves. It is believed that it is the descendants of those horses that are the Sable Island horses of today. I often hear people talking about Sable Island ponies, but I can tell members from experience, that there are no Sable Island ponies. These are horses in their own right, probably the true and earliest Canadian horse.
Sable Island has long inspired those touched by the island's history and beauty. George Patterson penned the first formal history of the island in 1894. Nova Scotia author Thomas Haliburton inspired by the loss of the brigFrancis in 1798 wrote “The Sable Island Ghost” in 1802. His fictional account of a ghostly woman raised support for the construction of a rescue site on the island. Among the first photographic expeditions to Sable Island was Alexander Graham Bell, who was part of an 1898 National Geographic visit. The late, great Stompin' Tom Connors recorded his song Sable Island in 1970.
Sable Island is located in one of the largest offshore hydrocarbon basins in North America. The governments of Canada and Nova Scotia have agreed to prohibit drilling and to limit other petroleum-related activities on the island out to one nautical mile from the island. Industry will still be able to access Sable Island to monitor several abandoned wellheads from the 1970s and to undertake non-intrusive exploration work if authorized by the Offshore Petroleum Board in consultation, of course, with Parks Canada.
As a former worker in the offshore petroleum industry, I am pleased to confirm that in case of emergency, workers will be able to seek shelter and safe harbour on Sable Island should they be taken off platforms due to emergency conditions. Parts of the bill would amend the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Resources Accord Implementation Act to this effect.
If members will bear with me, I will speak a bit more personally on that subject. Having worked in the offshore industry for over eight years, six and a half of them as a driller, I went through many rig abandonments. A rig had to be abandoned on a day in the early 1980s. Most of the personnel were sent to Sable Island. There were 12 of us who were deemed as necessary personnel and had to stay on board.
The lads who were sent to Sable Island had quite a time. They came back with stories of some of the existing houses still on the island half full of shifting sands. There were a lot of great stories and pictures. Of course, they spent about a day and a half altogether on the island. In those days, there were several people in the weather station and it was just before Christmas. Along with our personnel were the personnel from a Yugoslavian freighter that was in danger of taking the legs out from the rig. All of those sailors, thanks to the search and rescue team from Greenwood, Nova Scotia, and Charlottetown, were rescued and harboured safely on the island.
Although this is a national park, it is extremely important that in cases of emergency, the facilities on Sable Island are able to harbour individuals, whether they are on an offshore platform or fishing boats that are medevaced, or whatever the reason. We can do that in the parameters of the national parks system. There is already a helipad there. It does not have to be added. There are already some personnel on Sable Island. This could be a win-win situation, where industry and Parks Canada can work together for the benefit of all.
Holders of exploration licences that include parts of Sable Island have contributed to the historic consensus to protect this remarkable island by amending their licences to prevent drilling on the island and within the buffer zone of one nautical mile. I am sure that hon. members will join me in thanking ExxonMobil Canada Properties and other licence holders for their commitment to helping protect this remarkable island as a national park reserve.
Among the steps to create a national park reserve on Sable Island, administration of the island will be formally transferred from the Canadian Coast Guard to Parks Canada. With the collaboration of the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, this bill would also amend the Canada Shipping Act, 2001, to remove reference to Sable Island. The Sable Island regulations would be revoked, and instead the island would be subject to the regulatory regime under the Canada National Parks Act.
At this time, I would like to thank and congratulate the Minister of Natural Resources and the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans for their work in helping create a national park reserve on Sable Island. The Government of Canada is proud to table this bill to give Sable Island the highest level of environmental protection in the country for the enjoyment, appreciation and benefit of current and future generations of Canadians.
Turning now to other aspects of Bill S-15, including important matters related to two of Canada's oldest national parks, Yoho National Park and Jasper National Park, I will briefly describe the other proposed amendments to the Canada National Parks Act made in the second part of the bill.
The bill before us would modify the French version of subsection 4(1) of the Canada National Parks Act to align the French version with the English version. It would also add a new subclause, subclause 4(1.1), that states for greater certainty that nothing in section 4 limits the ability of the minister responsible for the Parks Canada Agency to charge fees in national parks under either sections 23 or 24 of the Parks Canada Agency Act. These changes address concerns raised by the Standing Joint Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations.
The provisions affecting Yoho National Park make minor changes to the description of the commercial zones for the community of Field, British Columbia, located within Yoho National Park of Canada. These zoning modifications are well within the legislative commercial growth limit for Field, they reflect public consultations carried out and they respond to concerns for business operations and residents of the community. They are important to the economic viability of the community of Field, British Columbia.
The proposed amendments that would affect Jasper National Park relate to the ski area at Marmot Basin within the boundaries of the park. The operator wishes to improve the ski experience in order to remain competitive with other new and expanded ski operations in the region and to stay financially viable. The operator has presented Parks Canada with an opportunity to achieve a significant environmental gain in the process.
Development of ski areas within a national park is strictly controlled by legislation, by ski area guidelines, by site-specific guidelines and by leases and licences of occupation. Changes to the size and configuration of the ski area boundaries require an amendment to the Canada National Parks Act. The growth limits in the site guidelines for the Marmot Basin ski area are based on a design capacity of 6,500 skiers per day, but the existing commercial space can serve less than 3,000 skiers. There is a need for additional facilities and services, and they must be developed in a strategic manner to achieve a better ski experience and respect conservation imperatives. The ski area management guidelines would allow ski areas to add new ski terrain only through an exchange that results in substantial environmental gain to the ecological integrity of the national park.
This is what is proposed in the bill before us. Marmot Basin ski area would remove from its lease 118 hectares of ecologically sensitive land in the Whistlers Creek valley. The area is an important habitat for woodland caribou, which is listed under the Species at Risk Act, as well as habitat for sensitive species such as the grizzly bear, wolverine and lynx. In exchange, the ski area would receive 60 hectares of comparatively less environmentally sensitive habitat for the new ski trails and the beginner runs. This is a win-win situation for the ski hill and for Jasper National Park, resulting in a net increase of 56 hectares of wilderness area to the park and the protection of future development of 118 hectares of prime woodland and caribou habitat.
The creation of Sable Island National Park Reserve of Canada, which is near and dear to my heart, would build on the Government of Canada's impressive achievements in protecting our natural and cultural history.
In conclusion, I hope hon. members will join with me in supporting this bill. This work started more than 50 years ago. By protecting Sable Island today as a national park reserve under the Canada National Parks Act, we can expect an important addition; even though it is an island and obviously Tertiary, the water surrounding Sable Island National Park in the nautical mile buffer zone is a very important addition.
For those members who have never had an opportunity to visit Sable Island, I urge them to do so. It is absolutely a unique place on the east coast of Canada, and the island continues to shift. It is continually in movement. We flew out and landed on Sable Island on one of the trips to the oil rig, and there was a vessel approximately 130 to 140 feet long, a steel ship, sitting upright on the bar of Sable Island. This was a vessel that had been wrecked on Sable Island back in the 1950s. I cannot say if there was any loss of life, but the vessel is still out there today. Over the period of the fall and before Christmas, that vessel, of which the spar probably would have been 60 feet off of the sands of Sable Island, was again totally covered in sand and one would not know if one had not seen it oneself that the vessel had been totally out of the sand and open on the island.
That is the type of terrain there. It is an amazing addition to the Canada National Parks Act and I urge all hon. members to support this legislation. This is a great piece of legislation.
