Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to thank all of the witnesses for joining us today and for your excellent presentations. I'm sure you could keep us busy far beyond the time allotted to us today to ask questions arising from your suggestions.
I'd like to start with the Earth Rangers. Your focus is youth, and you hit on something. Part of your objective in the program is conserving and connecting people with the environment. We have a real challenge in Canada, where we have a vast land mass and a huge coastal area around us, but our population is increasingly concentrated in the urban areas and there are lots of young people growing up who are not as connected to nature as we were.
The three of us here grew up in Manitoba. We were just talking a while ago and found out that we all used to camp out along the Winnipeg River system and Otter Falls, and hung out in the same areas and knew the same old forest ranger and so on. Camping out and having those outdoor experiences is really very healthy, but a lot of Canadians are growing up without those experiences, so I'm very interested in your program of connecting people.
Just by way of your rangers, I want to ask about the number of children you're reaching out to. How long has your program been going on?
Both groups at this end mentioned new Canadians. This is something that I heard you say and it is a concern for us. We have a very large immigrant community coming in, new Canadians who have come from areas where they haven't had rich natural heritage that we have. This is something interesting that comes out of a discussion of how we can reach out and engage new Canadians in the conservation objectives and in appreciating the nature around us.
I just throw that out to those here, and to Sophie Gallais, if you want to comment on that, about reaching out to young people. How do we engage them? How can we expand programs that do help connect young people with outdoor programs?