Evidence of meeting #14 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was plants.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
James Lunney Conservative Nanaimo—Alberni, BC
Anyway, we have low-risk inmates from provincial corrections assisting along highways and ramps and so on, where these things are taking over wherever there's sunshine.
I want you to comment on your organization: what is your mandate, how do you coordinate these people? Do you have enough volunteers?
12:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Invasive Species Council of B.C.
Two things. The broom-busting isn't linked to us at all. We have provided information around Scotch broom. Actually, the first thing we did was to try to get it stopped from being grown and planted with the horticultural industry in new areas of B.C. That was the first thing we got involved with. It took a while before the growers were onside with that. Now they are. There are many volunteers out there. There's much more that could be done. Scotch broom has the second-largest impact on Oregon's forestry trade. It has a big impact in B.C. also.
What we're doing mostly, as a council, is trying to stop the next Scotch broom from being involved. Some people would argue we've lost the battle in B.C., that it's hopeless to try to make it a zero-present species, but maybe it can be contained to certain areas and not be brought into new areas.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
James Lunney Conservative Nanaimo—Alberni, BC
Okay, thanks. It's a big challenge.
Hogweed was recently declared a noxious weed or invasive species in our area on the island. These monsters really cause a lot of problems, and they are really taking off. It was also mentioned by Mr. Quinney in Ontario. Somebody mentioned that the extent of the spread is way beyond what we originally estimated.
Can you give us an idea, from both a B.C. and Ontario perspective, how extensive is the invasion and how we are doing in containing it?
12:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Invasive Species Council of B.C.
It's broader in much of Canada, because people didn't even look for it before, and they got it confused with native species—there are some native, close-by species. There's a better knowledge of where it is in B.C.—it's been found in the Nelson area, for example, but it's been eradicated in that area because there were only a few plants, before it became what you have on the island.
There is more work to be done. The local municipalities are getting more involved because of the health risks to their citizens and kids. Some municipalities are just moving into that, because from their perspectives they didn't have a role—or even an interest—in invasive plants before, and they're becoming more active.
It's an example of a perfect.... I love the plant because it's one people can relate to: it hurts kids. It's a good poster plant.
12:30 p.m.
Coordinator, Ontario Invasive Plant Council
The same thing is going on in Ontario. This plant had a lot of push from the public through media campaigns. What was great is that it did push the ministry to put it on their noxious weed list; it didn't necessarily fall right into their mandate, but they were able to do something about it.
Again, as Gail said, through these campaigns and the collaboration that we have through our council, we've been able to find out where, in fact, it is found. We had hotline phone calls to the invading species awareness programs hotline, which gave us an ability to put this in our database and find out where these plants are. We have maps now, and we had no idea where some of them were before. We didn't realize how big this was and how far it had spread.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
James Lunney Conservative Nanaimo—Alberni, BC
Okay, thank you.
Now I want to talk a little bit about pathways. But with hogweed, was it a native species that just got a bigger niche? Where did this sucker come from?
12:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Invasive Species Council of B.C.
It was an exotic garden plant first found in B.C., first planted in the West Vancouver and North Vancouver areas, and it was still being traded by garden clubs two years ago.
12:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Invasive Species Council of B.C.
Yes, so that's exactly a pathway.
Today it's not knowingly sold in garden stores. It's a 15-foot plant, and great big maple leaves this size. If you get the sap on your skin it can cause dermatitis, second-degree burns, hospital visits, and all that type of thing. It has a WorkSafe regulation in B.C. Until it was listed a month ago, you couldn't buy it—there were no places we found that sold it—but there was nothing stopping somebody from selling it. It was definitely trading in the garden clubs because it's so exotic-looking.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Centre-North, AB
On both sides of the table here today, certain issues have come up with regard to how we can address invasive species: prevention, early detection, methods to raise public awareness, the use of volunteers, research and development, and those sorts of things. One thing you have all brought up is the issue of how to best coordinate these activities and collaborate among provinces.
Ms. Wallin, I think you said that this can't be done by a single agency, so collaboration is key.
My question, very briefly, would be to all of you, and it's twofold. First of all, do our federal government action plans—Mr. Quinney, you've spoken about those already—adequately address the issues related to collaboration between these areas? And secondly, when we're looking at implementation, are there some key things you could recommend with regard to implementation of collaborative efforts from our action strategy?
12:30 p.m.
Provincial Manager, Fish and Wildlife Services, Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters
Yes.
Thank you for the question, because clarity of leadership remains a very important goal that has not yet been achieved. For example, we've referred to several appropriate federal government agencies quite rightly being involved, but we still collectively require clarity—with reference to leadership—on a number of those categories.
12:35 p.m.
Executive Director, Invasive Species Council of B.C.
To follow up on that, there's no doubt that there needs to be coordination at all levels, including the federal government. Environment Canada is seen from our perspective to be the right lead. They have been extremely supportive of building collaboration at each of the provincial levels, through the council. There is a national council—Canada's national invasive species council—that's just in formation. It will be finalized by next fall, and it will bring together governments, industries, etc., at the national level.
So those are things Environment Canada has been totally supportive of—that all other agencies need to be involved at all levels.
12:35 p.m.
Manager, Sales and Marketing, Vanstone Nurseries; Board Member, Canadian Nursery Landscape Association
I would echo those thoughts, and just say that we need to be sure we're giving the right tools to the people who need to do the job. It's good to have the great umbrella put together, but maybe the role of CFIA in all of this—as they're out and about looking—needs some funding and to have involvement in the process, along with some of the regional councils and organizations.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Centre-North, AB
Ms. Wallin, you have spoken a few times today about Canada's national invasive species council. Could you give the committee some high-level information on that initiative, its genesis, and maybe some of the critical success factors that it's using to measure its activities?
12:35 p.m.
Executive Director, Invasive Species Council of B.C.
It's formally being formed right now. The history is that there are 11 councils under development or in place across Canada, and there needs to be a government-to-non-government coordination nationally for information for an advisory side. The process that's been under way over the last year is to formalize what formerly was a working group into a national council that would include federal, provincial, aboriginals, the councils from across Canada, industry, academia as a networking source—so no power, no authority, but for the purpose of sharing and linking information.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Centre-North, AB
Did either of the other witnesses want to speak to your thoughts on the organization and perhaps how it ties in to some of our federal action strategies?
12:35 p.m.
Coordinator, Ontario Invasive Plant Council
I think I agree with Gail here. As another invasive plant council, we are also with the national invasive species council and pushing collaboration across these boundaries. This is really important.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Centre-North, AB
What are some of the key outcomes the council hopes to achieve with regard to combatting this program?
12:35 p.m.
Executive Director, Invasive Species Council of B.C.
There will be some further work in February around it, but some of the key areas are to better link and share information across jurisdictions, to avoid duplication and share data—whether Ontario's data can talk to B.C.'s data or how we can even share those has been a key area. And the other area being targeted is what we can do to work together on the horticulture side, across Canada.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Mark Warawa
Thank you so much. Your time has expired.
Ms. Duncan, you have five minutes.
12:35 p.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Dr. Quinney, I'm going to begin with you. The estimated damage for invasive species worldwide is thought to be about 5% of the global economy, and both of you picked up on earlier the $13 billion to $35 billion for 16 species. Dr. Quinney, has there ever been a comprehensive study that's looked at the invasive species in Canada and what the economic impacts have been, or is there just this one study?