Environment Committee on Oct. 6th, 2011

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

I call the meeting to order. We do have quorum. Time is short. We are going until 12 o'clock, and then we'll go into the second half. Our apologies that some of your time was taken up with the vote in the House.

Assuming there are no additional presentations from either of the three presenters, we'll begin our questioning with the first round of seven minutes.

Ms. Rempel.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Centre-North, AB]

Good morning, and thank you for coming here again today.

Based on some of the presentations that we had at our last meeting, I'd like to direct some questions to Mr. Wong from Parks Canada. You spoke in your presentation about the use of volunteers in combatting invasive species. Could you perhaps put some more information out there on how national parks benefit from the assistance of volunteers?

[Mike Wong, Executive Director, Ecological Integrity Branch, Parks Canada Agency]

Thank you very much for the question.

Looking at the issues such as the invasive alien species, which is a very good example of the challenges of managing an area such as a national park, given the large distribution and the potential impact of these invasive alien species, it's very difficult for us to manage it without the support of the neighbouring community. This is really where the seeds or the eggs of these invasive species will be coming in.

We have extremely good relationships with the neighbouring communities. The one example I had in my presentation was the control and removal of scotch broom in the Garry oak ecosystem in the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve. Given the large distribution of this weed, there has been a huge engagement of the municipalities in organizing events such as what they call the “broom sweep” in order to remove these species from national parks and national historic sites. As one example of the magnitude of the issue, in one weekend last year in one of these broom sweeps, they removed over eight tonnes of scotch broom.

If you look at the challenges in terms of managing that as an individual organization, it is quite difficult without the support of volunteers.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Centre-North, AB]

You have spoken about the importance of volunteers here, so perhaps you could describe the recruitment process that Parks Canada uses to attract volunteers.

[Mike Wong]

There are several programs, and they vary by individual parks. For example, we do have in many of our national park locations volunteer organizations called friends of national parks. It's through these organizations that we organize different events within the parks, such as some interpretation programs in which they engage the local communities in bird watching, bird counts, as well as some citizen science programs looking at the monitoring within the parks, as well as active management such as weed removal. So the friends of the parks are key organizations in helping their local parks. As well, we look at third-party local organizations, such as naturalist clubs, that can also contribute to joint efforts.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Centre-North, AB]

That's great.

You gave some examples of some events that were put on, for example, the scotch broom event. Could you give some other examples of Parks Canada organizing specific events to attract volunteers to deal with invasive species?

[Mike Wong]

Another example would be one in Kejimkujik National Park, a national historic site in Nova Scotia. One of the invasive species identified in my colleague's presentation was the green crab, which is a European species that has been found in the waters in the Atlantic. The park basically organizes events during several weekends to capture these crabs and remove them from the ecosystem, because they do have a significant impact on the local species, including local native crabs as well as lobsters and other valuable species.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Centre-North, AB]

Have you had any challenges related to attracting volunteers to parks that are perhaps farther away from inhabited areas?

[Mike Wong]

You're absolutely right.

For many of our northern parks, for example, it is more challenging to bring in the volunteers. Yet our northern parks are also a little further away from the invasive alien species that are generally found in our southern parks. In some ways, the issues in the northern parks are slightly less severe than what we're facing in the southern parks.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Centre-North, AB]

What are some of the parks that have had the most success with regard to volunteer engagement?

[Mike Wong]

Certainly, the parks in Nova Scotia, as I mentioned, Kejimkujik and Cape Breton Highlands National Park. As well, one of the true successes is with our coastal British Columbia field unit, Gulf Islands National Park. In fact, the recovery of the Garry oak ecosystem was recognized as one of the key programs that led to World Wildlife Fund International awarding its Gift to the Earth award to us last year.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Thank you. I'm going to have to end that.

Thank you, Ms. Rempel.

I'm using my discretion. We'll be giving six minutes so that everybody has an equal opportunity.

Ms. St-Denis, it's your turn.

[Lise St-Denis, NDP, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Thank you.

My questions are a little more general.

Should the federal government consider creating a specific inspection agency for controlling invasive alien species?

[Robert McLean, Executive Director, Habitat and Ecosystem Conservation, Canadian Wildlife Service, Department of the Environment]

The approach that we have right now, as I mentioned on Tuesday, is a useful approach to the issue. The monitoring I'll come to in the second half of my response.

In the first part of my response, the focused approach on, for example, plants and plant pests, that we have through three departments or agencies—the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, within Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, Natural Resources Canada, and the Canadian Forest Service—allows that focused effort around species that are very similar. For example, there is expertise around aquatic species in Fisheries and Oceans. These are very specialized areas of expertise and it's good to have them in the particular agencies.

Monitoring is a great challenge that speaks to the early detection and rapid response. Monitoring is a responsibility that falls not only to the federal government but to provincial governments as well. It's an ambitious task to monitor invasive species and biodiversity. If the federal government is focusing its efforts on monitoring, it would be best to focus in those areas that are near ports of entry. The federal role that I mentioned on international trading and international travel...those major points of entry are the places where one could anticipate we'd see the first evidence of new invaders to the country. If the federal government were prioritizing, those would be the areas that come to mind.

With respect to monitoring, it's a much broader task than one that falls to the federal government alone. I mentioned provinces and territories, but we fund volunteer work where Canadians, citizen scientists, are out there in ecosystems and habitats checking for the presence of new invaders.

[Lise St-Denis, NDP, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

You're saying that this comes under provincial and federal jurisdiction at the same time. But what bilateral actions is Canada taking to fight these invasive species?

[Robert McLean]

On Tuesday, I mentioned the different federal-provincial partnerships that we've established. There's a federal-provincial partnership around aquatics species and also around plant and plant pests, as well as around forest pests. It's those federal-provincial partnerships that really provide an effective mechanism to sort out what the collective priorities are first.

The next level of discussion is, what are the federal government agencies best placed to deliver and what are the appropriate roles for provincial governments? The provinces tend to focus a little bit more on the management side. The authorities for international trade and international travel lying with the federal government should be the priority, whereas the provinces and territories have some of the levers, capacity, and people to actually undertake the management side of the issue of invasive alien species.

I don't know if my colleague from Natural Resources Canada might wish to add a few additional remarks around the federal-provincial roles on forest pests.

[Ken Farr, Manager, Canadian Forest Service, Science Policy Relations, Science Policy Division, Department of Natural Resources]

Thank you.

With respect to Natural Resources Canada, the Canadian Forest Service has been a partner in the national forest pest strategy for some six years, under the aegis of the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers. It's essentially a means of communication between the federal government and the provinces where there are shared issues with invasive species. For example, there are pathogens like sudden oak death, which have a potential to arrive in different areas of the country. The strategy enables us to share the risk analyses, the priorities, and the potential for forest pests to become serious problems for varying jurisdictions. I believe that partnering with provincial jurisdictions is one of the most effective means of addressing invasive alien species at a national level.

[Lise St-Denis, NDP, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

You spoke about invasive aquatic species. Our mandate covers invasive terrestrial species.

In fighting invasive species, do we necessarily have to differentiate between invasive terrestrial species and invasive species that are rampant in aquatic areas?

[Robert McLean]

Not necessarily. We see instances of the introduction of invasive species where the pathway is bringing species invasive to both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. If it's a shared pathway it makes sense. There are other instances, such as with ballast water, that are uniquely aquatic. It depends upon the pathway of introduction whether the partnership makes sense or not.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. St-Denis.

Our next person on the speaking order is Mr. Toet.

[Lawrence Toet, Conservative, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Thank you.

My question relates to a document that I believe you provided to us, Mr. McLean. It's called “An Invasive Alien Species Strategy for Canada”. You provided it to the full committee. I just want to clarify that before I start asking questions on a document that everybody might not have.

You gave some definitions. You make a distinction between “invasive species” and “invasive alien species”. Alien species you define as:

...plants, animals (including fish), and micro-organisms introduced by human action outside their natural past or present distribution. They are also known as exotics, or specified as being foreign or non-native. Introductions of alien species may be deliberate or accidental, and may be beneficial, as in the examples of corn, wheat, and domestic livestock, or damaging, such as leafy spurge, zebra mussels and wild boars.

Then you go on to explain:

Invasive alien species are those harmful alien species whose introduction or spread threatens the environment, the economy, or society, including human health. Alien bacteria, viruses, and fungi, and aquatic and terrestrial plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates (including insects and molluscs) can all become invaders.

I would like clarification on that statement. You're saying that alien species are not necessarily harmful. Invasive alien species are those that harm the environment, the economy, or society. Would that be correct?

[Robert McLean]

Yes.

[Lawrence Toet, Conservative, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

I'd like to go back to the building blocks of the strategy. I would imagine that this strategy was brought forward, at least partially, as a result of Canada's international obligations.

[Robert McLean]

That's correct. It flowed from the Convention on Biological Diversity. Canada adopted a Canadian biodiversity strategy in 1996. Invasive alien species was one of the priority areas identified by federal-provincial ministers in 2000, and that led to the adoption of the strategy in 2004.

[Lawrence Toet, Conservative, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Thank you.

Even though it's on an international front, is this a Canadian strategy?