Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to our guests for being here, and for your presentations today.
I'd like to talk to you about urban settings and conservation. We talked earlier about engaging urban audiences and ways to do this.
In particular, there is a project called the Lakeview Corridor project in my riding, which is on Lake Ontario in an area where access to the lake has been cut off for 120 years. There is a group in the community who is working to fix this problem and to bring nature back to those living in the surrounding area.
I listened with interest about the Ducks Unlimited program called wetlands for tomorrow, and about the $600 million in wetland conservation. I want to hear a bit more about that, even though it's over. I am wondering if that will continue in any other fashion, or take another direction perhaps, and if there was any support in that program for urban projects.
I'd like your thoughts on the importance of habitat conservation within urban areas. The project I'm speaking about, the Lakeview Corridor project, is approximately a 20-year project. It replaces a coal-fired generating station in the area, with four very ugly smokestacks sticking out like sore thumbs on the shores of Lake Ontario. I think this is a project that could be a showcase for brownfield development in the Greater Toronto Area. It will include waterfront trails, eco-friendly homes, green businesses, and recreational canals. The idea is to restore wetlands and marine habitat to the area.
My part b question is that while I like the idea of educating young people in urban areas and field trips to parks, I also believe that conservation has to be part of how and where we live every day, and most Canadians live in urban areas.
Do you believe that smart growth can be combined with conservation? Should this government, this committee, this report on the national conservation plan, support urban projects that attempt to do this? What advice would you have for us as we study this issue as it relates to urban issues?
That was a long preamble. I'm sorry.