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.