Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
There are two main documents that I would refer you to. One is a table that gives an existing Rouge Park context and then some weaknesses that we think are in the draft national park proposal. There is also a one-pager that has a “whereas” prologue and then a request to the committee, There are five requests that we're going to make to you. I'll lead you through the slide show as quickly as I can and will hopefully be able to sketch out our concerns and the great opportunities.
The first thing I'd like to do is thank the federal government and the Prime Ministerfor the amazing work that has been done in creating new parks and expanding existing parks, and for the initiative to create a Rouge national park. It's a great and visionary step in building our nation's green infrastructure.
Second, I want to thank the committee for inviting us to provide input on urban conservation initiatives.
Third, I'd like to commend programs such as EcoAction and the Great Lakes Sustainability Fund, which really contribute to urban conservation initiatives across Canada.
Let me show you a picture of the beautiful Finch Meander. It's one of the highlights of the park. The Rouge really is a special place. It's nationally endangered. It contains two of our great Carolinian mixed-wood ecozones, and it's a wonderful place right next to the city of Toronto.
I have here slide showing the Rouge beach. It's part of the Toronto area of concern. It has occasional water quality problems that reduce swimming opportunities on some days, but it's still a wonderful place, and if we can restore the park, we will bring back the water quality at Lake Ontario, and people will be able to swim. They fish here now, they kayak, and they canoe. This is right at Lake Ontario.
The Rouge Park has had wonderful and long-standing all-party support. The pictures I am showing you in the slide are from way back in the 1980s. One shows the Honourable Tom McMillan and the Honourable Pauline Browes visiting the Rouge under the Mulroney government. It was the Mulroney government that got the ball rolling with an offer to help fund the park. There's also a picture of the Honourable Lucien Bouchard, who was the minister of the environment. The other picture, of course, shows Ed Broadbent, who also visited the Rouge. It's an all-party support type of thing.
Today I have some wonderful colleagues here with me. Lois James, who is an Order of Canada recipient, is here, as is Kevin O'Connor, the volunteer president of Friends of the Rouge. He has been involved for 25 years with the Rouge. Also, Gloria Reszler is another 25-year veteran. Lois is a veteran of the Rouge issues, having been involved for more than 37 years. The next slide displays a picture showing Lois with Minister Peter Kentand one showing the Honourable Pauline Browes and MP Michael Chong at the Carolinian Canada sign in Rouge Park.
The Rouge is nationally significant in terms of first nations. It's one of the richest areas of settlement in Canada. There are literally dozens of first nation village sites, from the Huron-Wendat, to the Mississauga, to the Iroquois. It's just a wonderful area. When we create the park, the first nations should have an important role to play.
The Rouge also has two historic sites, including Carrying Place, a portage route that went up from Lake Ontario over the Oak Ridges Moraine towards Lake Simcoe; it shows up on early explorer maps.
It is in biological diversity that the Rouge really shines. I have had the pleasure in my life of visiting parks such as Haida Gwaii on the west coast, the Bay of Fundy in the east, Riding Mountain in the central area of Canada, and many others. I came back to Toronto, where I grew up, and while I had hiked in the Rouge, I didn't realize until I had grown up that it was one of the most biologically diverse areas in all of Canada, with more than 23 federally designated species at risk, 800 plants, and 55 fish species, including trout. We still have trout—brook trout in the headwaters, rainbow trout, and brown trout—and a lot of opportunity.
The next slide shows a sign from the river adjacent to the Rouge, which we'd like to see as part of the park. As well, people are working to bring back Atlantic salmon. There's a wonderful multi-million dollar recreational fishery along Lake Ontario, and we could have a wonderful fishery in Rouge Park.
The following slide shows Parks Canada's mandate. The key thing here is that Parks Canada ensures the ecological and commemorative integrity of these places for the present and future. In my table here, I have some concerns about the existing draft park concept, and some suggestions to improve it, to make sure that we follow this mandate of Parks Canada.
The opportunity here is almost miraculous. Back in the 1970s, the Trudeau government federally and the Progressive Conservative Bill Davis provincial government together acquired about 150 to 160 square kilometres of public land in anticipation of a second international airport. The airport plan didn't go ahead at that time. There are still plans for a smaller airport, but essentially, more than 100 square kilometres of that land is now designated as greenbelt within the provincial plan, and as a natural heritage system.
This is the land in the endangered Carolinian and mixed-wood life zone, the most endangered in Canada. This is the largest remaining area of public land left in southern Ontario, and it's nationally significant. Why do we need a 100-square-kilometre study area? For one thing, this area is home to almost one third of Canada's population—more than 10 million people. Second, it's home to one third of Canada's endangered species. Third, if you look at national and provincial parks, you'll see that this is one of the most underserviced and underrepresented areas in all of Canada; less than 1% of provincial and national parks are protected in this area. It's at about 0.26% of national parks. You can compare that to Manitoba or Nova Scotia. They're at about 2.5%. Alberta is at 9.5%.
This slide shows the greenbelt context. The government of Premier Mike Harris created the Oak Ridges Moraine, shown as a light green area in the centre, and then the government of Dalton McGuinty added a greenbelt around it. Now, it's very impressive, but it's mostly private land. If you look at the corner here, you'll see a little green area that widens out. That's the area between Lake Ontario and the Oak Ridges Moraine, most of which is in public land ownership and which could be and should be the study area for a national park.
I have a more detailed map here. I won't go into too much detail except to say that the light pink area is the current Rouge Park, primarily owned by the provincial and municipal governments. The dark purple area shows over 55 square kilometres of public land that is federally owned and is outside of the airport study area, so it's not part of the airport plans. It could be studied and it should be part of Rouge Park.
If you look at this next slide, you'll see that the current study area is in red and the blue is what we think the expansion of the study area should be. One of the reasons we need to expand into the blue area is that if you see the line that goes up between the blue and red, that's the town line between Pickering on the right and Markham on the left. If you look at the picture below that, if you go up that road that you can see in the picture, when you go up through the Markham part, there's an urban blockade called Stouffville. You can't really get to the heart of the moraine. You get to the very toe of the moraine, but you don't get to the heart.
You need the lands to the right in Pickering, which are federally and publicly owned lands in the greenbelt, to actually complete a strong ecological link up to the moraine. In fact, those lands were declared a federal green space preserve in 2002 by David Collenette. Those lands should be part of the study area. They're not right now.
Minister Peter Kent made some comments that we agree with. He basically said that the ideal configuration would be to include much of the federal lands in Pickering. Then he said that it might not be the ultimate configuration. We agree with that, because the study areas should be larger, and ultimately after a rational, scientific public and stakeholder process. There may be a good reason to not include all those lands, but we shouldn't kick them out at the beginning. We should have the full study area and then move forward in a rational scientific process.
Next I show you our five recommendations and the summary of the five; you have one page with the whereases. These are our request to you and five recommendations that we'd like you to adopt and send forward to the minister and the federal government.
First, let's look at a 100-square-kilometre study area. This is an area with millions of people and nationally endangered ecosystems. Let's not start by shrinking it down to something that won't be sustainable in the long term. Let's look at the full opportunity.
Second, there are 20 years of public planning, a great investment in public resources and community work, and we shouldn't undo that or reinvent the wheel. We should take that foundation and move forward to strengthen it.
Third, because these are endangered ecosystems and this is the last chance on public land to do something really good for them, the priority should be the protection and restoration of these two endangered ecozones: the Carolinian and mixed forests.
Fourth, we'd like you to include first nations and groups like Friends of the Rouge on the advisory committee. We've worked on these issues for over a quarter of a century in a non-partisan way. We've worked with all politicians. We've worked with the community groups. We live in the surrounding community. We really know this issue backward and forward.
Fifth, I think that we want to get this right and we know you want to get this right, so Parks Canada should have more time and maybe more resources to make sure, before we finish the park concept and before we do the legislation, that we get it right. We hope you give Parks Canada some resources.
Lastly, this is a beautiful quote from the Honourable Tom McMillan, who was the minister of the environment in 1988. He said:
I view “The Rouge” as one of the most important things we did as a government, not only in the natural heritage field but in our whole public policy agenda. Now, the work to protect the Rouge, and to make its splendours accessible both to Canadians and to all humanity, must find its logical completion through full national park status for this incomparable place. Nothing less will do justice to the natural heritage values so important to our national identity.
I fully and heartily agree. We have a community here with great diversity, with many new and young Canadians. This park should be worthy of a national park. It should invite people in to experience our wonderful national parks under the leadership of Parks Canada and then entice people to go to the rest of Canada. Our parks system is world renowned.
Thank you.