Environment Committee on March 8th, 2012

[Mike Wong]

Certainly in the areas in southern Canada where habitat has been fragmented, there are huge opportunities for ecological restoration. As you mentioned, we have seen some of those successes of bringing back salmon to some of the streams in our national parks. The last time I was here we talked about the removal of invasive species from some of the wildlife habitat.

In addition to the ecological conservation gains from these activities, it should really be noted that these activities are very much engaging the local community. We have examples of that where we have ecological restoration projects in our parks and the local communities come out to lend a hand.

One example would be on the other side of the country, in Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site. Over 1,000 individuals from surrounding communities have come out in the last five years and put in over 100,000 volunteer hours to help restore the Blanding's turtle population, to help survey rare plants and local fish in the national park, as well as to remove invasive species, such as, in this particular case, green crab.

In addition to the conservation aspect, there's very much what Parks Canada sees as an engagement effort to again bring the communities out, and bring the youth out for them to learn about nature as they help us carry out this work.

[James Lunney, Conservative, Nanaimo—Alberni, BC]

Thank you for that, Mr. Wong. We know volunteer involvement is actually crucial, and we want to explore and expand Canadians' participation in environmental stewardship.

In British Columbia we have such vast areas that have small populations. I see in your comments you mentioned the wildlife overpasses and underpasses along the Trans-Canada Highway. I know that in driving through the interior of B.C. up through to Kelowna all along the highway we have fences to keep wildlife off to avoid collisions between vehicles travelling at pretty good speed and wildlife, and fences to allow wildlife in and out.

I want to ask about effectiveness. Do we have evidence on how wildlife are using the corridors that are provided this way across our transportation corridors? How effective have these strategies been?

[Mike Wong]

First of all, these overpasses and underpasses are extremely effective. When we installed these overpasses, we also installed cameras. When wildlife cross these various laneways, we have actual photos of grizzly bears, cougars, and elk that are using these overpasses and underpasses.

It's quite interesting. Last year one of our parks staff gave a presentation in Washington, D.C. It was at a conference on innovative technology for highway transportation, looking at it from an ecological perspective. In fact it was one of the award-winning presentations, just because of its innovation and also the types of results it's bringing forth.

[James Lunney, Conservative, Nanaimo—Alberni, BC]

Along the same lines, wildlife are very ingenious and creative. I'm just wondering if that has created any situations of conflict where a predator might be staking it out, waiting for the elk to come along, or some other animals to cross. For example, out on Vancouver Island, on the Puntledge River in the Comox area, where there are lights over the bridge, the seals actually are lying there on their backs when the salmon are migrating and just waiting to bite a fish coming right by over their heads. They're very creative.

Have we noticed any areas of conflict that have been created because of these funnels?

[Mike Wong]

Given the data that we have right now, we have not seen any of those, but I think that may in fact be simply a lack of data rather than these events not occurring.

[James Lunney, Conservative, Nanaimo—Alberni, BC]

Thanks for that. Now I'd like to come back--

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Mr. Lunney, unfortunately, your time has expired.

I'm going to keep it very tight, because in the last 15 minutes we have two items, one of which is Ms. Liu's motion. So I'm going to keep it tight so that everybody will have a chance to ask a question.

Next we have Ms. Duncan.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the witnesses.

This is very interesting and extremely important. I hope the committee will indulge me here.

The way I work, I need to have a good understanding, which means I need frameworks. I'm hoping you will table these with the committee, and as an MP I hope you'll respect that we have the right to ask for this information.

I'd like to see a framework, and I think it would be useful for everyone, of what is currently in place in terms of conservation at the federal level, and also what's in place with the provinces, because we need to have that understanding before we go anywhere else. That's the first thing I'll ask. If you'd table that, I'd appreciate it.

The second thing I'd ask is this. I think we really need to understand the environmental and sustainable development goals Canada has committed to, both nationally and internationally, because if we're going to work on a conservation plan, I would hope that we'd be working to meet those goals. So I'd be grateful if you could table that.

The third piece of this is specifically around an inventory of the federal legislation and policies that are currently in place that would have implications for a national conservation plan. Sorry, I'm asking for a lot, but I've got to figure out the framework.

Then I'm going to come back to Ms. Liu's point and then I'm going to ask some questions. I think what she raised is really important, with that report. I recognize it's a 2003 report, but it would be interesting to see what has been completed, what is in progress, what is not addressed, and you mentioned cost was an issue. Perhaps we should see those four things.

So I'd appreciate it if those could be tabled with the committee.

What should be the guiding principles, in your opinion, to support the development of a conservation plan, please?

[Michael Keenan]

Thank you for that.

You have laid out a significant request. There's one part I can respond to right now, and that is, there's a very useful instrument on the context of the overall environment and sustainable development goals that I think helps build the frame and the context you're seeking.

I have one with me because I carry it with me everywhere. It's the first federal sustainable development strategy, tabled in 2010. This strategy focuses on four areas across the government of Canada: climate change and air quality, water quality, protecting nature, and greening government operations, all of the overarching objectives of the Government of Canada, all of the targets, and all of the implementation strategies. It runs on a three-year cycle, and we're just getting into the long-term reporting on this. It will report, on a three-year cycle, on the progress that is being made through all of these implementation strategies in achieving these targets in order to meet these goals.

So as an overarching instrument, it's quite helpful, particularly the section on protecting nature, because this is really about trying to advance those goals and targets.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

I have seen the report, thank you, and I've read the report.

But really, what are the commitments we have made both nationally and internationally? I'd like to see that outlined. Could we have an understanding of what progress has been made to date on each of those commitments? If we're going to build this plan, this plan should be feeding into those commitments.

[Michael Keenan]

In the back of this report, in section 4, it lists all the Government of Canada's national and international commitments, and targets are actually listed.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Have we listed completed, in-progress, and not addressed?

[Michael Keenan]

The second progress report, which is coming next spring, would actually do that.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Could we have an interim report on this?

[Michael Keenan]

I think we can come back in terms of the information requirements, but—

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

I'd appreciate that. Thank you.

[Michael Keenan]

—I don't want to lose the connection to this, because ultimately it does feed into our reporting to you, to Parliament, on the progress that's being made in achieving these goals and targets.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you very much.

I would like to see where we are today as we head into this. That would be really helpful. Thank you so much.

I'll come back to you. What should be the guiding principles supporting the development of a conservation plan?

[Michael Keenan]

Thanks for that question.

As we've moved forward we're beginning to sketch out—I would say with a little bit of trepidation because we don't want to declare what they should be—some key guiding principles in terms of a national conservation plan. One of them is that it be national in scope, in terms of bringing all partners together.

A second guiding principle is breadth, in terms of going beyond traditional protection. We've been framing that for now in terms of advancing on three pillars—conservation, connecting, and restoring—in order to establish a broad breadth to it.

A focus on, I would say, collaboration and innovation and bringing in place new practices and bringing new players in, in terms of recognizing working lands and private lands, would be some of them.

In the interests of time, I'm going to stop there.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Thank you.

Monsieur Choquette, you have five minutes—actually four and a half minutes.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Thank you very much. I would like to thank the witnesses for being here.

I would like to support my two colleagues, Laurin Liu and Kirsty Duncan, in the request they put to the chair. Could the witnesses provide a detailed report of the work that was done by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy in 2003? We want to know to what extent these objectives have been attained. It is quite possible that some of these objectives have not been achieved and there are no doubt reasons to explain that.

Do you want to answer my question now or later?

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

It would be up to the committee to decide that.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Okay.

My first question deals with the national conservation plan that the Conservatives committed to developing in 2011. The 2010 Speech from the Throne mentioned the creation of over 85,000 km² of national parks and national marine conservation areas. In the 2011 Speech from the Throne, no specific figures were given.

Is creating 85,000 km² of national parks and marine areas still one of the government's objectives? If so, what percentage has been conserved so far?

[Michael Keenan]

I would start by saying that the government has set out a fairly ambitious agenda of protecting spaces, and it has made significant progress in doing that. I would say it is well on its way in terms of achieving that.

There are probably two groups of activities. It's the significant protected spaces that actually have been put in place, and it's the ones we're currently working on.

Mike, you may want to talk a bit about Parks Canada, and then you may want to talk a bit about the national wildlife areas.

[Mike Wong]

Thank you very much for the question.

This year has been a very busy one for Parks Canada in terms of park establishment. Members may recall that we achieved the land withdrawal for the protection of Nailicho, which is located on the northern part of Nahanni National Park Reserve. We're continuing the negotiations to formally have that created as a national park reserve. In addition, we are working with the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador on the creation of the Mealy Mountains National Park located in Labrador. Recently there was an announcement that Parks Canada is working with the Province of British Columbia on a feasibility study on creating a national marine conservation area in the southern Strait of Georgia.

All these activities are ongoing and are listed in our corporate plan as our park establishment priorities.