Environment Committee on Oct. 6th, 2011

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Okay. Thank you.

We will now begin our second round. We have eight minutes left, so we will go four minutes each.

Mr. Choquette, you have four minutes.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses.

Pesticides are clearly an important tool for tackling the problem when it arises. But this solution is not a panacea. As you have noted, it's just one of many tools. Clearly, we cannot do without it in our society.

But Mr. Majka, you said—and I found this very interesting—that we instead need to think about preventing invasive species, among others, because given the climate changes that are currently gaining speed, it will be more and more difficult to manage the presence of these invasive species.

In your opinion, what would be the best way of finding the means to prevent them? Should we allocate more financial resources to the environment? I think you spoke about that.

Should we set up a standing committee made up of members from various environmental organizations, including those fighting climate change and those dealing with invasive species?

[Christopher Majka]

Yes, I agree with you on all these points. There are circumstances where pesticides are important and in fact indispensable. In many circumstances they are not a panacea, and they create many unintended and problematic consequences, in some cases worse than the problems they had been intended to address.

For example, some of you may have heard CBC Radio's morning program yesterday. The Current looked at the creation of superweeds, one of which is a species called the giant ragweed that has now appeared in Ontario. Many others are now significant problems in the United States, and they could be expected to occur here as well. They have been created by the use of herbicide-resistant superweeds that in some cases are enormous—10, 12, 15 feet high. They shade resources, use up nutrients and water, and are resistant to the herbicides that created them.

In terms of new species and what we ought to be doing to detect and deal with them, it is tremendously important to coordinate initiatives within federal departments and among provinces. We need to be looking in many areas, chiefly ports obviously, and places where goods are coming into Canada from abroad. We also need to improve our ability to detect species, and as I mentioned in my opening remarks, to differentiate between invasive species and the many alien species. An enormous number of them effectively blend into the biological woodwork.

We need to focus our resources on those that are really invasive and are potential threats. One species I know the committee is interested in is the emerald ash borer, which is a significant invasive species. I know that in the United States, for instance, many jurisdictions are simply giving up on protecting ash trees because the species has spread so rapidly—

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Mr. Majka, I have to interrupt you there, I'm sorry. Time is up.

We now have our last speaker, Mr. Lunney.

[James Lunney, Conservative, Nanaimo—Alberni, BC]

Thank you very much.

I'd like to thank our witnesses. We're discussing a very important subject. Of course, the purpose of this whole review of invasive species is not only to inform the members here but to look at our strategies. Are they sufficient, and how might we improve our strategies to manage alien or invasive species?

I wish we had more time to flesh this out because important issues have been raised by all the witnesses here today. However, let me simply say that I'm glad to hear from our crop people that you're working with a wider range of options today, and from the chemistry expert that you're working on things that are more holistic in approach. I take note of the comment that if we get better agricultural production from smaller areas of land, that releases former agricultural land to be restored to wetlands and so on. That's a very valuable contribution.

However, Canadians are concerned about persistent organic pollutants from another era of pesticides, pollutants that are still circulating in our atmosphere and having a terribly destructive impact on the environment and ecosystems, even on human physiology. I'm very encouraged to hear there are better strategies today, and I'd like to hear more about that.

Mr. Majka, in spite of admitting to members of the committee to some partisan involvement, I appreciate that you did raise some important points. I think the committee should take note of the Canadian strategy on biodiversity. It's been going on for a decade. I'd be interested in your impression of the work going on there. I think you raise some valuable points for the committee about making sure we do a thorough job in inventory. We still have not identified all the coleoptera or the homoptera, if you will, the different bugs and beetles. A lot of interesting work needs to be done there.

I hope both of you could contribute something to deciding when it's time to act. You raised some important questions about the longhorn beetle. We were delayed in acting on the pine beetle. It was a domestic species. The impact was devastating because the government of the day in British Columbia did not act in time. Deciding when it is a priority to act is an important question we're going to be facing. Perhaps you could comment on that. I'll leave it to both parties to try to contribute something in the limited time left.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Mr. MacLeod.

[Peter MacLeod]

I'll pass it over to my colleague.

[Dennis Prouse]

I couldn't let that opportunity pass, Mr. Lunney, without telling you about the Clean Farms program that CropLife Canada launched and now runs. It's absolutely free of charge to farmers. Since the program was in operation, we've collected 87 million empty pesticide containers from farmers and 1.4 million kilograms of obsolete pesticides. We will collect those obsoletes and dispose of them in an environmentally responsible manner so that exactly what you speak of doesn't happen.

So you're right, we are proud of the improvements that have happened. We're going to continue to work on it. When we have more time, I would love to tell you and any other member of the committee who wants to hear it about the Clean Farms program and the Clean Farms initiative.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Mr. Majka, you have the closing comments. You have about 40 seconds.

[Christopher Majka]

Those are important questions. I'm pleased to hear about and in fact have been following the integrated pest management approaches, which I think are very important. There certainly is a more holistic sense these days than there was in the era in which DDT was used indiscriminately. As one of your members pointed out, it's still circulating and causing problems.

It's also very important to investigate bio-control measures. For example, going back to the lily beetle, which I mentioned in my presentation, there's some phenomenal work being done in the United States in introducing a European species of parasite that is phenomenally effective at bringing down population levels and increasing the mortality of the lily leaf beetle. We really need to explore such things here in Canada as well.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Thank you, Mr. Majka.

Thank you, Mr. Prouse and Mr. MacLeod.

The time has expired. I want to thank the witnesses for sharing with us their input.

I want to thank the committee members.

I'm looking for a motion to adjourn.

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

Consider the motion to adjourn made.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

The meeting is adjourned.