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.