Yes. I wish I had something in front of me that I could refer to. I don't.
But you're quite right, and I know this is something you have raised in the past, and we appreciate it. Because whether it's the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Environment Canada, or non-governmental organizations that do surveys and things, like Wildlife Habitat Canada and others, it's important to have this information and to have up-to-date information. The survey on the importance of nature to Canadians is something that used to give us a bellwether on where we were in terms of our wildlife resources and our natural resources in this country.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans, for instance, does surveys every five years, which they publish, and that gives us a fairly good snapshot of where fishing is in this country in terms of how many are participating and what they're participating in, etc., which is a useful thing for governments in terms of making policy. It's useful for non-governmental organizations and charitable conservation groups like us and the other groups that are sitting here today to understand where we're at.
It gives us that accurate snapshot in time, as I said, and it allows us to compare how things have happened over the last five years, which is why the surveys that you speak of are important. Because it's not just anglers, hunters, and trappers that it's important to: it's important to all Canadians to understand just where our natural resources are going.
There is a general feeling among conservation organizations in this country that governments--and I say governments in general, including provincial and federal governments, and even those at the local level to a certain extent, right down to conservation authorities--are not placing a great enough emphasis on our natural resources, not only in terms of policy, but in terms of funding dollars for the future.
Things like that survey you refer to are important for us to then go forward and say, “This is what Canadians think and this is why you need to be focusing on this”.