I was involved in a subprogram of that granting program whereby the federal government made a large grant to be administered by the Nature Conservancy of Canada, when the attempt was made to share some of that money with smaller land trusts across the country. So I was on a small committee where we looked at applications from smaller groups across the country to see if they would qualify for some of those funds, using the same very detailed and very credible procedures that the Nature Conservancy had used.
It was very interesting because a few things became apparent. The smaller groups had to come up with matching funds, just as the Nature Conservancy did, in order to access the federal funds. It's one thing for the Nature Conservancy to come up with whatever, $10 million for Darkwoods, and B.C.'s land prices are a bit out of control, but it's very hard for a small land trust in Manitoba, for example, or Newfoundland or Nova Scotia to come up with that 50% matching funding.
So I suggest if you're going to look at expanding or reauthorizing that program, that the matching fund part not be the same for the small land organizations, and that special consideration be given to disparities in real estate prices across the country.