Okay, wonderful, thank you.
And thank you for accommodating me online here.
My name is Bill Wareham. I'm a marine conservation specialist with the David Suzuki Foundation, where I've worked for 10 years. I've worked for the past 25 years for non-governmental organizations in Canada, working on a variety of conservation issues—terrestrial, wetlands, national and provincial parks, fisheries management, forest management—and have a broad range of experience, which I bring to this discussion here today.
In regard to the David Suzuki Foundation, we have a broad suite of goals that we operate under in trying to protect Canada's environment. One of our core goals is to really look at the systems that support us as a society in Canada—the agricultural land, the fisheries, the forests—and to have those systems not only exist in the future in a way that continues to support the economies that we count on, but also that supports the biological diversity and the wildlife that is representative of Canada, and that I think Canadians associate with.
In regard to the national conservation plan, three of our goals are specific to this. One is protecting nature, both from a diversity perspective and the health of these ecosystems, protecting our climate; transforming the economy to operate within the limits of these natural systems; and getting people to reconnect with nature at a level where we have stewards across the country, in communities, in municipalities, and in provincial governments, who take it upon themselves as a role to take care of and steward the land.
Our perspectives on the national conservation plan are that we think this is a very important initiative, but we also put a caveat on that. We think it has to be bold. To be branded and framed as a national conservation plan, it has to have substantive enough elements to warrant that framing, which is quite significant, I think, in the eyes of Canadians when they hear that.
Some of the key principles we think are important in the plan that I'd like to outline are: to establish and promote a clear vision and a goal; to identify achievable conservation targets; to focus on larger scale conservation initiatives; to facilitate engagement by provincial and municipal governments, where the jurisdiction overlaps with federal authority; to engage first nations governments at every step of the process; to ensure that the best available science is brought to the discussion and the decision-making around these issues; and also to develop a plan that's flexible enough to respond to changes in the environment over time.
Some of the recommended outcomes that we have as targets are—as CPAWS has mentioned, and we agree with this—to adopt the biodiversity convention targets, but also to go beyond those and to look at how we can be a global leader in biodiversity conservation. Another is to use the National Parks and Wildlife Act and the National Marine Conservation Areas Act to establish a network of large protected areas, and we agree with going beyond the targets, similar to what CPAWS has mentioned. Others are to provide incentives for collaborative capacity between provincial and territorial governments, and really encouraging them to get to work and designating more of their land; to provide economic incentives for provincial and territorial governments to restore at least 15% of the degraded ecosystems; and to provide funding to municipalities and non-government organizations to enable the analysis and planning required for protected areas and land stewardship.
We'd also recommend enhancing regulations related to toxics; establishing a national energy strategy that provides mechanisms and incentives for aggressive reductions to greenhouse gas emissions—we believe that clean water, clean air, and protecting the land and wildlife are all part of a valid national conservation plan—and investing in additional capacity and funding in our national fisheries so that we can have a fisheries recovery strategy and support rebuilding these fisheries, which really provide a lot of economic benefit to Canada.
In regard to process, I'd just like to mention a few things that we'd suggest in putting this together.
One is to provide opportunities for online support and feedback informing the national conservation plan targets and outcomes, and providing an ongoing web network, where people can see what's happening, they can track what's going on, they can contribute and participate, and they can have links to provincial governments or other initiatives that are helping fill out the plan.
The second one is establishing regional and national coordinating committees that include federal, provincial, and first nations representatives to facilitate the necessary dialogue and decision-making on some of these larger issues.
Our third recommendation is to establish federal inter-agency coordinating committees. In many of the conservation initiatives we pursue, we found a lack of coordination and alignment between the federal agencies, which can really slow down progress on the initiatives. We've recently seen some committees come together effectively, particularly in regard to oceans. We'd like to support that in the broader sense of the plan.
Our fourth recommendation is to enable accountability by monitoring and annually reporting progress towards these objectives, so people can see how we stand against the major outcomes.
Our fifth recommendation is encouraging individual Canadians to get involved in these initiatives and participate not only in the planning and design, but also in bringing information to the decision-makers and establishing a non-government national conservation plan advisory council. The council would consist of leading NGOs, academics, and industry leaders, who would review the plan and discuss challenges along the way.
In conclusion, I'd like to say that we're very supportive of the plan. We'd like to be part of the ongoing design development. We are also happy to provide additional information on specific concepts as you refine your approach and determine your key objectives.
We want to emphasize that it really has to be a bold plan. We can do that. If Canada, in our developed country with the wealth that we have, cannot develop something that serves as a global model on how to engage our human societies with their environment, I can't imagine how it could be done in other places in the world. We'd like to help make this a bold plan with bold outcomes. We're happy to engage our staff to help along the way.
Thank you very much.