Environment Committee on April 23rd, 2013

[Robert Sopuck, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB]

In my constituency anyway, but we'll talk about that some other time.

Given that agronomic development has created strains of crops such as GMOs, for example, that will allow us to have higher and higher yields on smaller and smaller parcels of land, don't you think that will be a mitigating factor, in that if we get the programming right, given modern technology, producers will farm their best lands even better and perhaps provide more opportunities for “risky” and marginal lands to be used as habitat areas?

[Richard Phillips]

I'd say that the majority of the focus will be on the good land. You'll never get rich farming poor land. It's the marginal lands that get set aside first for the conservation effort. Whatever incentive program there is to continue putting more land into those conservation projects, it will be the marginal land that goes, and we will focus on the good land.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Harold Albrecht]

Thank you very much, Mr. Sopuck and Mr. Phillips.

We'll move now for our last round to Ms. Leslie for about four minutes.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Woodley, you talked about protected land. I can't remember if you said that it was too isolated. Was that the word you used? I guess the point of my question is about segmentation, segmentation of habitat, and picking up on the contrary of what Mr. Toet was talking about with the interconnectivity. How do we actually connect to these lands?

I was impressed to hear about the efforts farmers are making to preserve certain lands, but the reality is that you look at the map and it's a piece here and a piece here. I wonder if CPAWS has done any work for recommendations about that: How do we figure that out? How do we increase that connectivity? When we're looking especially at private lands and indigenous lands in combination with public lands, how do we best map out what lands are being conserved, why, and how, and prevent that segmentation of habitat?

[Alison Woodley]

That's where land use planning is really critical, I think. It's landscape-scale planning, whether it's formal land use planning or conservation planning, but at the landscape scale. I did talk about how most of our protected areas are isolated islands, and that's a problem. We need the protected areas, but we need them connected together.

Through a landscape-scale planning initiative, whether it be land use planning or other mechanisms, we can start to look at where the core areas are that need to be protected based on the mapping that's done on the areas of high conservation value, and how we can manage that landscape in between so that the species that need to move can move. It doesn't mean that there's necessarily.... It might mean that there's a protected corridor. It might mean that the landscape is managed in such a way that it's permeable to wildlife, so that wildlife can move up through the riparian corridors between protected pieces.

I actually really like the idea of cooperation among private landowners so that you can look at a landscape scale, take everybody's little piece, and make sure it's working together in the best possible way. That's really what we're talking about here: making sure the pieces work together.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

So who does that? When I think of land use planning, I always revert to municipalities. Who does that coordinating?

[Alison Woodley]

Well, it depends where. For example, in the Northwest Territories, there are very impressive land use plans that have been developed by the Dehcho First Nations and the federal government. That's still in process and needs approval, but there has been a huge amount of work. In the Dehcho Region around land use planning, it builds in the core protected areas, the connections between them in making sure they're connected together, and the sustainable management of the landscape. The Innu have led a similar process in Labrador.

In southern Canada, it is more of a municipal responsibility, under conservation authorities, perhaps, in some areas in southern Ontario. I'm not as familiar with that private landscape because I don't work there as much, but in provincial governments, for land use planning...there has been a commitment in Ontario, through the Far North initiative, that they will protect at least half of the far north through land use planning, through community-based and indigenous community-led land use planning.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

If you had your druthers, would it be organized by distinct ecosystem or by...?

[Alison Woodley]

From an ecological perspective, an eco-regional approach would make a lot of sense. They need to be knitted together at various scales. A municipal plan needs to be nested within a regional plan, and it goes up from there. You can have various levels of connectivity too. At the municipal level, you might talk about these riparian areas and about making sure there are protected corridors at that scale. At a regional scale, you need to think more broadly and think about a landscape kind of management approach. It really depends on the scale you're talking about.

[The Chair, Conservative, Harold Albrecht]

Thank you very much, Ms. Woodley and Ms. Leslie.

Our time is up for these two hours.

I want to thank our witnesses for their investment in time today, their efforts in habitat conservation, and their help with this committee's study.

The meeting is adjourned.