Evidence of meeting #3 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 report.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Mark Warawa
I call the meeting to order.
I welcome the officials from the Department of the Environment, Parks Canada Agency, and the Department of Natural Resources. Thank you so much for being here.
Who will be our first presenter?
Mr. McLean.
October 4th, 2011 / 11:05 a.m.
Robert McLean Executive Director, Habitat and Ecosystem Conservation, Canadian Wildlife Service, Department of the Environment
Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to be with the committee this morning on this particular subject matter.
We've prepared a presentation. I wonder whether it has been circulated.
11:05 a.m.
Executive Director, Habitat and Ecosystem Conservation, Canadian Wildlife Service, Department of the Environment
I'll jump into it anyway.
In my presentation I will spend a few minutes speaking about why we should care about invasive alien species; provide an overview of a national strategy, an invasive alien species strategy for Canada that was developed a few years ago; and then speak a bit to both interjurisdictional coordination—domestically, I mean, not internationally so much—and then the federal role.
Invasive alien species is what I would call a horizontal file that involves a number of agencies.
Turning to slide 3, dealing with why we should care about invasive alien species, I'll start with a definition.
Alien species are simply species of plants, animals, and micro-organisms introduced by human action outside of their historic or current range. When do they become harmful or invasive? It is when they have an economic, a social, an environmental, and perhaps even a human health impact.
In Canada we have a number of alien species, and then within that there are a number of species that actually cause harm to our environment, our economy, or our society.
It's estimated that there are about 70,000 species in Canada. About 12,000 of those have been assessed in something called the Wild Species 2010 report. That's about 17% of the species that we have in Canada. Of those approximately 12,000 species, about 1,400 or about 12% have been identified as alien species.
Of those more than 1,400 species, about 90% are invasive plants. And then spiders, believe it or not—about 70 invasive spiders—and about 50 or more ground beetles have been identified as alien species in that report.
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
James Lunney Conservative Nanaimo—Alberni, BC
I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.
Sir, you're mentioning some great figures and statistics. We just got your talking points here. Could you refer to where we'd find these great statistics you're referring to on species and numbers?
11:05 a.m.
Executive Director, Habitat and Ecosystem Conservation, Canadian Wildlife Service, Department of the Environment
Absolutely. You can also follow up with the clerk afterwards.
It's called the Wild Species 2010 report.
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
11:05 a.m.
Executive Director, Habitat and Ecosystem Conservation, Canadian Wildlife Service, Department of the Environment
No, I referred to it. I wanted to reference for the committee the source documents.
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
11:05 a.m.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
Could you tell us exactly what deck you're referring to? As you started your presentation we were receiving the documents, and now we have two decks.
Okay....
And now, what page are you now on, even though that material is not there?
11:05 a.m.
Executive Director, Habitat and Ecosystem Conservation, Canadian Wildlife Service, Department of the Environment
I'm on page 3.
11:05 a.m.
Executive Director, Habitat and Ecosystem Conservation, Canadian Wildlife Service, Department of the Environment
Thank you.
I've mentioned already the economic, environmental, and social impact, and we have a few statistics or factors mentioned on slide 3 as well. There is no actual systematic assessment of the economic impact of invasive alien species in Canada. Even for the existing investment studies and assessments, I've heard kind of crude if not conservative estimates on the economic impact of invasive alien species. There are studies that suggest the impact might be $20 billion or more in the forest sector. You can see the numbers for the great lakes as well as the agricultural sector. Certainly, invasive alien species have an impact on the health and status of Canadian species--17% of species at risk in Canada are at least partly at risk because of the impact of invasive alien species. Globally, in about 40% of species that are extinct, invasive alien species were at least part of the reason for their extinction.
You will see from the next slide, slide 4, entitled “Why Care About Invasive Alien Species”, that the number of invasive species in Canada continues to rise and their distributions in the country continue to expand. I think there are two primary reasons why. One is globalization. The magnitude of international trade, transport, and travel is very large. Historically in Canada a key source of invasive species was western Europe, but we have much more diverse markets now, Asia for example, so there are new species coming in from these newly developed markets.
The second factor is likely the warming climate making our ecosystems more receptive to foreign invaders. When we had longer and colder winters, that was very effective in preventing species from becoming established. We have examples of where the climate conditions changed such that, although it's not an alien species, the mountain pine beetle has been able to expand its distribution primarily in British Columbia and getting into Alberta.
In terms of the cumulative number of invasive species, there is a little chart at the bottom of this slide showing those many alien plant species that I mentioned. The big growth was between 1800 and 1900 as Canada was developed. We're now seeing about one new plant species every two years, approximately, so the pace has slowed. But there are still new invasive plants arriving in Canada.
Turning to the next slide, titled “An Invasive Alien Species Strategy for Canada”, the development of this strategy arose out of a decision by the federal, provincial, and territorial ministers to prioritize invasive alien species. It was taken in the context of the Canadian biodiversity strategy and led to those ministers approving the strategy. It's one of the documents that I've made available to the committee. The strategy establishes a very broad goal to protect our ecosystems and native biodiversity, as well as the domestic plants and animals that are important to our economy, from the risks posed by invasive alien species. The scope is broad and inclusive. It's applicable to intentional or purposeful introductions, both authorized and illegal, and all unintentional or accidental introductions.
The strategy established a prioritized approach. Rather than managing invasive alien species after the fact--often once they're established, it's almost impossible to eradicate them--the approach is to move a little bit more to the front end with prevention, early detection, and rapid response. We will always have management because some of these species have a big economic impact.
The tools that we use include legislation and regulations. Risk analysis is a very important activity, and the federal government is very extensively involved in risk analysis and science components and education and outreach as well as international cooperation.
The focus on prevention rather than dealing with a species-by-species approach takes us to a focus on what we call pathways of introduction. For example, wood crates could have any number of foreign beetles, or what have you. If we address that particular pathway, a larger number of potentially invasive alien species can be prevented from entering into Canada.
Pages 34 and 35 of the strategy pictorially describe what I just mentioned on this slide, and on page 35 a large number of pathways of introduction are identified.
The next slide is on roles and responsibilities. I mentioned previously that invasive alien species is a very horizontal issue involving federal, provincial, territorial, aboriginal, and municipal governments, but addressing invasive species doesn't stop with government action. I definitely think it's important that stakeholders like industry have a key role to play. Non-government organizations are active on this file, as well as academic researchers and the general public.
Turning to the next slide, on interjurisdictional coordination, subcommittees have been established federally and provincially to address some of the thematic areas. We have an invasive alien terrestrial animal species subcommittee, an aquatic invasive species committee under the federal-provincial fisheries and aquaculture ministers, and a national forest pest strategy technical committee. Sectoral documents have been developed by those governance mechanisms I've just mentioned. They focus on terrestrial plant and plant pests, invasive plant framework, a plan to address the threats of aquatic invasive species, and a Canadian wildlife disease strategy.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Mark Warawa
Mr. McLean, your time is up. Do you need more time, or will you be able to make your presentation with answers?
11:15 a.m.
Executive Director, Habitat and Ecosystem Conservation, Canadian Wildlife Service, Department of the Environment
I could probably make my presentation with answers, but maybe I can show one more slide and quickly mention federal legislation. I'll stop at the next slide.
11:15 a.m.
Executive Director, Habitat and Ecosystem Conservation, Canadian Wildlife Service, Department of the Environment
Thank you very much.
The federal role is focused on prevention, as far as international and interprovincial trade and transport. The key statutes are managed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, with the exception of the Canada Shipping Act, which is Transport Canada. The work we do responds to international commitments and organizations that I mention on this slide.
At the bottom of the slide I identify the most involved federal agencies with respect to invasive alien species. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency works with Natural Resources Canada and Agriculture and Agri-food Canada on invasive alien plants and plant pests. Environment Canada deals with the strategy on terrestrial animals and the funding program. Fisheries and Oceans Canada deals with aquatic invasive species.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Mark Warawa
Thank you, Mr. McLean.
The first round of seven-minute questioning goes to Mr. Lunney.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
James Lunney Conservative Nanaimo—Alberni, BC
Thank you very much.
I'd like to welcome our witnesses. Thank you very much for joining us today for this very interesting subject matter. It is important to our economy, in looking at some of the numbers here. It involves a lot of challenging mechanisms for implementation in terms of monitoring the movement of plants, animals, and insects.
My first question comes out of the definition--maybe a good starting place. I notice in your first deck you define alien species of plants, animals, and micro-organisms introduced by human action outside of their natural past or present distribution. I'll come back to that. But invasive, of course, simply means harmful. So it's important to define these terms.
On harmful species that have moved, can you give us some ideas? Since these definitions were adopted in 2004, where do you draw the line when you're talking about natural past and present distributions? There has to be a starting point, since species and humans have moved around. What did you use as a starting point?
11:15 a.m.
Executive Director, Habitat and Ecosystem Conservation, Canadian Wildlife Service, Department of the Environment
If the issue is change in natural distribution and the species is expanding its range, say from the United States into Canada, such as we're seeing now, they aren't considered alien. That's a part of the very natural change you alluded to that's happening in ecosystems. That's not to say that some of the species that are expanding their range naturally into Canada because of changing ecosystems aren't going to be harmful. We may still need to deal with those species as a country. Mountain pine beetle is a really good example of that. It's not an alien species to Canada; it was always found in British Columbia.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
James Lunney Conservative Nanaimo—Alberni, BC
It's endemic. So for our purposes, we're talking about only species that are somehow impacted by human activity or the movement that is related to human activity.
11:15 a.m.
Executive Director, Habitat and Ecosystem Conservation, Canadian Wildlife Service, Department of the Environment
Yes, exactly.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
James Lunney Conservative Nanaimo—Alberni, BC
I think we certainly have some other neighbours, migratory birds, that may carry seeds from other places and drop them off here and there, and a whole range of other things that are challenging to control, I'm sure.
11:15 a.m.
Executive Director, Habitat and Ecosystem Conservation, Canadian Wildlife Service, Department of the Environment
And that can happen as well, although something like West Nile virus—I'm trying to recall its pathway of introduction, and it's escaping me at the moment—can happen naturally as well, the spread of disease.