Thank you very much.
Mr. Bradbeer, in your presentation you mentioned land use in the delta going back to 1868, and bringing the fields back to be somewhat similar to what they might have been. I believe your comment was that they “quickly become tall grass habitat that emulates historical grassland ecosystems” present on the LFRD prior to 1868. You mentioned 1868 earlier as part of your presentation.
Curiously enough, 1868 was the year that the current Fisheries Act passed in Parliament. It's an immense problem. The definitions in the Fisheries Act are totally out of touch with modern realities, unfortunately.
There is this delicate status quo in all the user groups of fisheries: first nations' cultural, ceremonial, and other uses; as well as commercial and recreational fisheries. A very delicate balance has been worked out, the status quo, and there is paralysis about dealing with updating this law, which desperately needs to be done.
There's so much room for fearmongering. With the modest changes that are actually included in the current legislation, there's lots of room for fearmongering. I'd like to assure the witnesses that it is not the intention of this or any other government to destroy the environment.
A previous witness mentioned the economic opportunities we have in this country. She feels that we need a robust conservation plan to balance any development objectives the government may have. That's exactly what we're attempting to do. It is a balancing act. In case anyone around the table has lost track, if we lose our economy, we also lose our opportunity to make the environmental investments people are asking us to make and achieve those important goals.
I found it interesting that you mentioned 1868 in your presentation. There have been a lot of changes since 1868, and the legislation does need to keep up with them.
Bearing that in mind, I think it was Mr. Joly who mentioned an expansion of the Nahanni. That's something this government did. There was a lot of work that went before in analyzing it. There was a huge expansion of the Nahanni National Park, the Great Bear national park, the Ramparts River—I think that's 33,000 hectares—the eastern side of Great Slave Lake—10 million hectares. If you consider the land that was set aside for land claims up there, it's another 62,000 hectares. This is the largest conservation achievement in Canadian history.
This government is very interested in actually achieving some conservation objectives. That's the purpose of this study, actually. We're moving towards that and we appreciate your being here to help us recognize how we can get there.
Having said that, my colleague mentioned engaging and involving young people. Some of our witness groups have creative plans on how to get more people turning over rocks, catching critters in the pond, looking at pond life under a microscope to see what a hydra and aquatic organisms look like.
How can we engage more young people in interacting with the environment? There's a large segment of our population that is still not being reached. I think you answered a question from Mr. Toet about parks.
I'll just throw that open again. Do any of the witnesses have any suggestions on how we can further engage young people and new Canadians, for example, in the environment?