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?