Evidence of meeting #74 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was alberta.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:35 a.m.
Vice-President, Alberta Wilderness Association
Review any of the subsidies....
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Thank you.
You talked about support for first nations. Can you give your recommendation to the committee, please?
9:35 a.m.
Vice-President, Alberta Wilderness Association
In my experience, first nations seem to have been left out of the biodiversity train, if you wish. They have a very strong interest in protecting it, but quite often their interests are superseded by external economic interests. We need a way of, again, providing support to those communities getting larger areas free of industrial development—because quite often they're very compatible with our area-sensitive species like caribou. I'm not sure how much the federal government can do, certainly in the provincial areas.
But, for example, in the caribou recovery, we've set an important goal to reach at least 65% of undisturbed habitat for each caribou population. If the government would work with the provinces and the first nations to enforce that standard, if you wish, or goal, then we'd start reversing the decline in caribou. That's a specific example that I think can be started and worked on right away, and it is consistent with existing government targets.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Thank you.
I'm going to pick up on targets. You've mentioned several times today caribou and sage grouse. Can you talk about Canada's targets? Have we achieved those targets, what we need to achieve those targets, and can you speak specifically to your recommendations on targets and your recommendations on caribou and sage grouse, please?
9:35 a.m.
Vice-President, Alberta Wilderness Association
No, I don't think we've met our targets. Maybe we never will. Certainly I want to change that trajectory towards meeting our targets. In areas like the boreal forest in Alberta, we're going away from that at a very rapid pace. We need moratoria on certain areas until the plans are completed so that those caribou ranges can meet that 65% goal.
In areas like the grasslands, as I said, the conservation target in Alberta was something like 1.3% of the grasslands to be protected. They didn't even meet that target. IUCN or the world commission on development was looking at 12%. We're saying 17% or 20% should be a natural region target for some sort of conservation. Whether it's IUCN or something else, we're still a long ways from that target, and the species at risk tell us that.
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
So your specific recommendation to this committee would be moratoria on....
9:40 a.m.
Vice-President, Alberta Wilderness Association
On industrial development in a number of caribou ranges. We've far exceeded the amount of development that's allowable under the goal.
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
Thank you.
You also talked about dismembering the PFRA. Is there anything you want to add there, a specific recommendation to the committee? Or do you feel you've covered it?
9:40 a.m.
Vice-President, Alberta Wilderness Association
I think I've covered it. But the key take-away is an assessment of all federal lands, and before you're disposing of any federal lands or transferring them, there should be an assessment of how they're contributing to your biodiversity and whether you want to get rid of them.
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
Kirsty Duncan Liberal Etobicoke North, ON
I have 15 seconds. What do you want to say about sage grouse?
9:40 a.m.
Vice-President, Alberta Wilderness Association
Sage grouse, it's a sad story. It should be at the top of mind of every Canadian because we're just about to lose that species in Canada.
9:40 a.m.
Vice-President, Alberta Wilderness Association
To protect the Govenlock pasture as a start, and work to get industrial development structure out of the landscape.
9:40 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Harold Albrecht
Thank you, Ms. Duncan, and thank you, Mr. Wallis.
We move now to Madame Quach for five minutes.
9:40 a.m.
NDP
Anne Minh-Thu Quach NDP Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for being here today.
My first question is for Mr. Wallis.
We were just discussing protected areas, and I would like to know the size of protected area networks. The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society also spoke with us of the need to develop them and said that we needed more of them.
But why are we hearing about networks of protected areas? How is the network important?
9:40 a.m.
Vice-President, Alberta Wilderness Association
Yes, the Alberta Wilderness Association has a whole pamphlet on it. The network means you have core areas that are protected from industrial development, but if that's all you have of these core areas, then it's not going to be enough.
Mr. Sopuck talked about other things on the landscape, so we need everything from industry, farmers, and ranchers doing best management practices to connectivity through corridors so wildlife have migratory pathways. We need to look at those interconnected systems, how the whole landscape is being managed. Otherwise we don't really have a system of protected areas.
9:40 a.m.
NDP
Anne Minh-Thu Quach NDP Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC
Very well.
You also promote the protection of national parks. I believe Mr. Robitaille also raised this earlier. I will let him speak a little later. Twenty-nine million dollars in cuts were made to Parks Canada recently. We hear about raising public and youth awareness as regards protecting habitats and living in harmony with nature, but how can we protect habitats when these kinds of cuts are being made?
What is the impact of these cuts on the protection of national parks?
9:40 a.m.
Vice-President, Alberta Wilderness Association
Where do I start? I think the national parks have been underfunded for a long time and further cuts aren't going to help. A lot of monitoring programs have been curtailed. Certainly in the past we have had some of the best research and science in our national parks system, and we were leaders in the world.
I worked on CIDA projects overseas because of Canada's reputation. I see that reputation declining, and I think those kinds of cuts are leading to that loss of prestige. It's unfortunate, and I think it will affect our management capability. I think it has already started to affect our management capacity within those parks.
9:40 a.m.
NDP
Anne Minh-Thu Quach NDP Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC
Thank you.
Mr. Robitaille, you referred to cuts that have also been made to the scientific sector. In your opening remarks, you mentioned that it is essential to have sources of extensive scientific data.
You mentioned a survey in which, I believe, 79% of respondents said that they did not have enough information.
Do you have any recommendations for us as to scientific data, so the federal government can help the private sector choose best practices?
9:45 a.m.
Chair, Holcim Canada Inc., Canadian Business and Biodiversity Council
I would like to start by putting the numbers in context. I provided two numbers: 79% of respondents felt that there was insufficient data and 84% of respondents felt that the quality of information was insufficient.
I will use my company as an example because of course that is what I know best.
We are currently drawing up a plan that will help us identify the most sensitive areas in terms of biodiversity. We can use other sources, for example, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's red list. There are also others available. It is quite difficult for us to quickly survey our sites and identify those that require immediate action. There are probably a hundred sites in Canada.
Access to data banks and, especially, access to GIS would be very useful. It would be much easier to immediately focus on those sites. We are just beginning to set up this program so what we have at this point are basic data. Ideally we would be starting off with data that would send us in the right direction.
It was stated earlier that conservation and biodiversity improvement requires the participation of several sectors, such as business, government, NGOs and individuals. At this point in time, we have no means of consolidating that and identifying opportunities. Using connectivity could help us link those activities that we do on our own site to other activities in other areas. This would lead to improvements that we could never accomplish on our own.
9:45 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Harold Albrecht
Thank you, Mr. Robitaille and Madame Quach. You're a little over time there.
Mr. Lunney, you have five minutes, please.
May 7th, 2013 / 9:45 a.m.
Conservative
James Lunney Conservative Nanaimo—Alberni, BC
Thank you very much.
Well, Mr. Robitaille, as we all know, can talk very quickly. I want to just go back to something you were engaged in when the chair intervened in your earlier remarks. You were discussing some of the measures that your organization has implemented. One of the things that went by in that rather rapid procession was something to do with the Milton quarry and efforts there to recover that land.
Could you take a moment to explain that to us and tell us what your organization members were up to there?
9:45 a.m.
Chair, Holcim Canada Inc., Canadian Business and Biodiversity Council
That's one of our sites. I'm very familiar with it. It's a facility that is about 400 hectares. Out of that we have already restored over 250 hectares of land. In my mind, it's a perfect laboratory of how the thinking has evolved on what quarry rehabilitation should be. In the past it was just put some dirt, put some grass, plant whatever is available, and we'll be happy.
We went to a second generation, which is very visible at the site, where we tried to mimic natural landforms a little bit more. Now we're in the third generation and we're working with several partners at trying to figure out what the landscape would have looked like if we had never been there. So we're trying to re-establish faces that look like the Niagara Escarpment. We're trying to have different types of shallow water.
Last Friday, as a matter of fact, we had a meeting with several NGOs to try to figure out the best way to go. In the past we planted trees. We removed trees so, naturally, we said we were going to replant trees. Now these guys are telling us that the environment that's really missing in our area is grassland. So right now we have to go back to government and tell them that these plans that we presented of planting trees may be more effective if we have a greater variety of environments.
So we're engaging a lot more with local communities and with NGOs so that our net long-term impact is a lot more beneficial than what was there before.