Environment Committee on Oct. 3rd, 2012

[Gord Brown, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville, ON]

Absolutely. We talked about the branding. If the park name is changed, subject to the approval of this committee and Parliament, there will be initial excitement about that. It will draw new attention to the park. It may, in fact, generate enough revenues just from that initial excitement to pay for the costs in terms of the changes.

But on the islands themselves—some of them are small, some of them are rather large, and some are not a whole lot bigger than this room—there are signs that would probably be about the size of this desk between where Mr. Ross and I are sitting. There are some larger signs that are at the mainland site, at Mallorytown Landing, and there are a few other signs here and there, but they're not large signs and the cost could be very minimal. They are these slat signs; they could pop one piece out. You're only talking about a piece about this big to change “St. Lawrence” to “Thousand”.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you.

I'll just ask Mr. Russell.... We're talking about a $138,000 investment over 10 years. What do you see as the ROI, in terms of the business community, the chambers of commerce?

[Tom Russell]

I don't know that I can give a definitive answer, but what I can tell you is if the St. Lawrence Islands National Park were to come to the 1000 Islands Community Development Corporation and request support for the costs associated with this, I think it's a pretty safe bet that my board of directors would support this wholeheartedly, because they would understand that the impact and the return would be well worth the investment.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you.

I have no more questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Very good. Thank you.

We'll begin our first round of five minutes.

Ms. Raynault, you have five minutes.

[Francine Raynault, NDP, Joliette, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

This is the first time I take the floor in the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development. I am used to being a member of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food.

I have been hearing about the Thousand Islands for a long time. For a few years, with the Thanksgiving weekend looming, we would go camping in the St. Lawrence Islands. So this is not exactly the same thing, but it was really very nice.

Of course, my committee colleagues have asked many questions. My question is for Mr. Ross.

I recognize the fact that this will increase tourist visits, that people from the region will have more work and that jobs will be created. However, will an increased number of tourists in the Thousand Islands park and the neighbouring villages have an impact on the environment?

[Don Ross]

Great question. Thank you very much.

That's always a concern in this particular area. As I mentioned, more than half of Canadians live within a five-hour drive. It's also a concern amongst the provincial parks, which are entirely booked up in the region. It's a very heavily visited region. The national park has played a great role in figuring a lot of that out. They are known as the leader in our area on trails development and impact studies and visitor management and so forth. So although there's a potential for more visitors in the region, it's not necessarily going to be to the national park because the physical limitation there is the dock size. But as I said before, the value to Canada is to have more people from urban areas visit this particular region, and under the mentorship of the kind of tourism management that Parks Canada can help bring to this area if there's a reinvestment in this national park and the organizations that surround it.

[Francine Raynault, NDP, Joliette, QC]

Thank you for your answer.

That's all.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

You're all done. Thank you. Merci.

Ms. Ambler, you have five minutes.

Before you start, I think I may have consent that this may be the last questioner. Then we'll move on to clause-by-clause. Do I have that consent?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

You have five minutes.

[Stella Ambler, Conservative, Mississauga South, ON]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Brown, for coming to our committee, and congratulations on your bill.

You may know that the most recent report produced by this committee was about the national conservation plan. This committee heard a lot about connecting urban Canadians with nature.

Can you tell us how the newly named Thousand Islands National Park would help encourage city folks to appreciate this specific one of Canada's national parks?

[Gord Brown, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville, ON]

First of all, I'd like to speak a bit about what the government did with regard to the Nature Conservancy of Canada and the impact it is having in our very own region. Mr. Ross can speak a little bit to some of the properties in the Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve that are not part of St. Lawrence Islands National Park. They have recently been designated and protected through that investment that is connecting urban Canadians with nature and the more rural parts of our country.

You have in this particular park, with the expansion about 10 years ago, the lands that used to be administered by the St. Lawrence Parks Commission. It is a provincial government agency that had managed those parks, as well as Fort Henry and Upper Canada Village. I actually acted as chair of that agency for six years, so I was very familiar with it.

I don't want to say anything negative about the provincial agency, but those lands are much better managed today as part of this national park. They get more attention and more protection. This is an opportunity, as Mr. Ross mentioned. There are new trails and new protections for those lands that are part of this national park.

Maybe Mr. Ross would like to comment. He could speak to this probably even better than I can.

[Don Ross]

Sure. I will be brief.

It's probably premature for an announcement by Mr. Russell, but one of the things we've been working toward in the biosphere reserve network is creating a set of extraordinary experience opportunities for people who are visiting the region by connecting a lot of the dots: national park interpretive programs with paddle trips up the Gananoque River, plein-air experiences, stays at local B and Bs, and visits to local restaurants and so on. What hasn't been done to date in our region is connecting these authentic landscape experiences.

Consolidating under a brand name such as the Thousand Islands is going to help a lot in the marketing efforts toward that. What we see is growth and a sustainable tourism approach in the region that is going to float an awful lot more boats than in the past. It will provide that legendary experience that people go to the Great Barrier Reef or Costa Rica to enjoy. And that will happen within an hour's drive of Ottawa.

[Stella Ambler, Conservative, Mississauga South, ON]

Calling it cross-marketing is really one way to put it. Once you get them in, you keep them in with other activities and things like that.

[Don Ross]

That's absolutely right, given a sufficient level of investment by the Government of Canada.

[Stella Ambler, Conservative, Mississauga South, ON]

It sounds like about $138,000.

[Don Ross]

That would be a bit of a shortfall. That's for some signs for a national park. What we'd really like to see is an investment in the Canadian biosphere reserves system of $5 million annually.

[Stella Ambler, Conservative, Mississauga South, ON]

Right. I knew I wasn't going to get away with it that easily.

[Don Ross]

I'm serious.

[Stella Ambler, Conservative, Mississauga South, ON]

There's no doubt about it.

I'd like to hear about how many millions of people are within a five-hour drive. I know from personal experience that the park receives visitors from around the world. When I was very young, I remember my parents receiving relatives from Italy. Being from west of Toronto, we always take visitors from overseas to Niagara Falls. But I remember going to the Thousand Islands, too. Until I came here, I didn't know it was named anything else. I guess that's one of the many examples we've heard today of why the branding really needs to be changed.

Thank you very much again.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Thank you.

I'm going to suspend the meeting. We can thank our witnesses for being with us today and we'll move into clause-by-clause.

It's an open meeting, so you're welcome to stay and observe if you want, but we'll move into clause-by-clause.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

I call the meeting to order.

I'd like to introduce Mr. Mike MacPherson. Mr. MacPherson is the legislative clerk assigned to Bill C-370. He's here to help us if there are any issues. I don't expect there will be.

I'm going to go right to clause-by-clause. We have not received any amendments on the clause, so I'm going to ask, shall clause 1 carry?

(Clause 1 agreed to)

My second question then is, shall the title carry?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mark Warawa]

Shall the bill carry?