Good afternoon. My name is Rick Bates and I'm with the Canadian Wildlife Federation. David Browne, our director of conservation, is also here.
I'd like to thank the committee for the opportunity to offer comments. First I'd like to commend the government for taking the opportunity to create a national conservation plan for Canada. The plan has great potential to leave, for all Canadians, a lasting legacy of an integrated landscape with healthy and productive natural capital that supports a strong economy and healthy communities. I wish you well in your work.
I'll touch on three things during my comments: the first is the committee's question regarding conservation priorities; the second is the proposed goal of connecting Canadians to nature; and the third is the committee's question regarding implementation priorities.
In regard to the first question around conservation priorities, we face many challenges as a society, including the need for broad watershed and seascape planning, the demands of responding to species at risk and habitat fragmentation, and the needs for connection between terrestrial habitats. But with limited time today, perhaps the most important one for us is that in a national conservation plan the many issues facing our aquatic environments, both freshwater and marine, need to be thoroughly recognized and comprehensively responded to throughout the plan. For a good review of the issues facing our three oceans and recommendations on ways to respond, I'd encourage the committee to review the recent report from the Royal Society of Canada Expert Panel, “Sustaining Canada's Marine Biodiversity”, which was published in February 2012.
In terrestrial habitat conservation, we appreciate that perhaps the greatest need is in developed areas, the so-called working landscape, which will require creativity, the use of a wide range of tools, and the engagement of the whole society to achieve the goals in this area. In particular, we encourage the creativity and development and application of market-based mechanisms such as tax relief for Canadians who take actions that provide public good—for example, farmers who leave buffer strips that filter runoff from important waterways—offset programs to encourage conservation of important natural areas to compensate for destruction or degradation of other areas, and incentive programs to encourage quicker adoption of best land-use practices.
In the proposed goal of connecting Canadians to nature, one important challenge within such a goal is to elevate the level of conversation among Canadians around the trade-offs between industrial growth and conservation. Our public conversation is highly polarized now, of course, into either “anti” or “pro” positions. This doesn't recognize the reality that there are trade-offs required when you do conservation or when you expand industry. This polarized situation heightens conflict and makes decision-making longer and more difficult. There are tools to help shape these conversations from an either/or to examining how it can be done, and they present Canadians with options for level and type of industrial impact and the implications of these options for our country's natural capital and for our GDP.
In our view, one of the best tools for such integrated decision-making and communications is through land-use planning models that can quickly and clearly illustrate the expected changes on a landscape and through the wide range of indicators important to society, such as employment, GDP, and the impacts on natural capital such as water quality, air quality, and wildlife abundance and type.
Large area planning processes like that also provide many other benefits, including clear consideration of cumulative effects of multiple developments, so decisions incorporate impacts of both the specific proposed project and other existing or planned projects in the watershed, for example. They can also speed up and improve decisions by providing regional perspective and by establishing agreement on acceptable impacts in different areas. Once complete, they can also help coordinate the actions of Canadians.
The goal of connecting Canadians to nature must also respond to challenges such as the need for strengthening concepts of sustainability, education curricula, improved opportunities for outdoor recreation and learning, and access to natural outdoor spaces in urban areas.
On the committee's question regarding implementation priorities, Canada is far behind its public commitment to establish conservation areas. This is true in terrestrial areas, but it's particularly true in marine areas.
We appreciate that it's a complex business to identify and respond to the needs of the many different interest groups involved, but it's no more complex than approving a major industrial development like the pipeline. We understand the government's role to render decisions on industrial projects within two years, and we think a national conservation plan should include an equal commitment to speed up the timelines around the creation of conservation areas so that they too are made within two years.
A national conservation plan has the potential to focus and coordinate actions across society. An important step in this would be a strong commitment from across the federal government. To achieve that, our hope is that ownership of the plan, its champion within government, will be at the highest level—the Prime Minister's Office, the Privy Council, the Major Projects Management Office, or other similar integrating body with clout.
In closing, we at the Canadian Wildlife Federation look forward to continued opportunities to help build and shape the plan, as well as joining with others in a commitment to implement it over time.
Thank you.