Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good morning. My name is Joe Farwell, and I'm the chief administrative officer for the Grand River Conservation Authority. I am pleased to have this opportunity to provide you with input on habit conservation in the context of the national conservation plan.
The Grand River Conservation Authority is one of 36 conservation authorities in Ontario that manage water, forests, and other natural resources in the most populated portions of our province. We are, by definition, a partnership of municipalities and a watershed for the management of water and natural resources across municipal boundaries.
Our watershed is located immediately west of the greater Toronto area, and at 6,800 square kilometres it's the largest watershed in southern Ontario. It's about the size of Prince Edward Island. There are 39 municipalities in our watershed, with a population of close to one million, most of whom live in the rapidly growing cities of Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph, Cambridge, and Brantford. It's also one of the richest farming regions in Canada, with farmers working 70% of the land and producing an incredible variety of products.
The Grand River Conservation Authority is the oldest water management agency in Canada. It was created more than 75 years ago, when the industry leaders at the time realized that they needed to work together to address severe environmental issues of flooding, pollution, and inadequate water supplies. As a result, our river has undergone a remarkable recovery, which was highlighted in 1994 when the Grand River was the first river in a working landscape to be designated as a Canadian heritage river.
The GRCA was created, first and foremost, as a water management agency. By early in our history we learned that managing water also means protecting the land. The severity of floods and droughts are determined, in part, by the health of our wetlands and our forests.
One big part of our success over the years has been that we've adopted an integrated watershed-wide approach to managing our natural resources for both land and water. The GRCA owns more than 20,000 hectares of land. Throughout Ontario, conservation authorities own a total of 150,000 hectares, and much of that land was initially acquired for water management purposes. Land was acquired for dikes and dams, and flood plain properties were acquired to limit development.
Over the years, those parcels of land have become protected spaces, providing a host of other benefits. They provide rich and varied habitat, from forests to wetlands, and they are connecting links between our larger, natural spaces. They help protect and restore the form and function of natural ecosystems and landscapes. A good example is the Luther Marsh wildlife management area, west of Orangeville. This 5,000-hectare property was acquired in the early 1950s for a water management reservoir, but since then it has become one of the richest habitats in southern Ontario, and home to close to 250 bird species. Significantly, one reason for its success is that it's a product of many partnerships among the GRCA, provincial and federal agencies, the private sector, and the surrounding communities. These partnerships have provided the long-term vision and stability that are needed to help plan and finance the development of rich, protected habitat. These are long-range projects that needed to grow over decades, so they needed commitment to match that time.
As I mentioned earlier, most of the land in our watershed is in private hands, and about 70% of it is farmed. We've worked very closely with the farm community and our municipal partners to develop a rural water quality program. The program has encouraged farmers to adopt best management practices to protect water on their land, and by extension, water in natural space throughout the watershed. Our municipal partners provide funding for financial incentives, and in little more than a decade close to $34 million has been invested in 5,000 water protection projects. Of that total, grants amounted to $13 million, with farmers contributing more than $20 million in labour, materials, and cash.
Again, one source of its success is the strength of the partnership and the stability provided by long-range financial commitments from our funding municipalities. Building relationships is the heart of successful collaboration, and it takes time and continuity to do that. Canada's best value investment in stewardship programs like this is in the long-term commitment to the environmental farm plan. Slow and steady wins this race. Programs such as these are becoming even more important as more and more natural spaces are under stress.
There is, of course, the pressure caused by urban growth. Although Ontario and many of the municipalities in our watershed are working hard to promote intensification of our urban areas, it's inevitable that the urban boundaries will grow. Second, high commodity prices encourage farmers to start growing crops on marginal lands, and this can put pressure on woodlands and wetlands. In those circumstances it's even more important to ensure that our publicly owned, protected spaces are well managed now and into the long-term future.
One final point I'd like to make is that any national plan has to include regional plans that are fine-tuned to local ecological and environmental needs. A plan for lands in the Great Lakes Basin will look much different from one for the Prairies or the Rockies, even if the underlying goals are the same.
It's in our nature to look at things from a watershed perspective, and we think any national plan should also have that view in mind. It's been our experience that federally funded programs, which we've been able to take advantage of, tend to be focused on the needs of specific species. We would prefer to look at a broader context to the natural environment and its ecosystems. If you can protect or enhance an ecosystem, the needs of a species will be met.
The federal government can create a vision and expectations for conserving natural spaces. It can promote the fact that healthy ecosystems, public health, and economic well-being are all tied together. It can recognize that conserving natural spaces can provide great social benefits to Canadians. The federal government can integrate these goals and principles into the full range of federal environmental programs and cost-sharing partnerships.
Thank you, Madam Chair, and I'd be happy to respond to questions now or later.