Evidence of meeting #77 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 water.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Conservative
James Lunney Conservative Nanaimo—Alberni, BC
Okay. Thanks for that.
For my friends from Ducks Unlimited, in your previous testimony I think I picked up that 50% of waterfowl in North America were hatched and raised in the Canadian Prairies. Is that right?
Director of Conservation Planning, Ducks Unlimited Canada
It's pretty close.
Conservative
James Lunney Conservative Nanaimo—Alberni, BC
As for my question, the North American waterfowl management plan has protected and improved—and you guys are major partners in that—some 27 million hectares of wetlands-related ecosystems on both sides of the border. Of these 27 million hectares, for many of them it's Ducks Unlimited contributing to that, with your partners on both sides of the border.
These are apparently not considered protected by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Can you explain why they're not? Do you feel they should be considered as protected?
Chief Executive Officer, Ducks Unlimited Canada
I think partly the reason they're viewed as not being protected is that in most instances and jurisdictions the surface ownership is what a typical landowner administers or controls. They do not have the mineral estate or the oil and gas estate, the subsurface rights. If those subsurface rights are not put into some permanent protection, they do not give it the global protected status.
Conservative
James Lunney Conservative Nanaimo—Alberni, BC
Okay. Thanks for that.
You mentioned examples of secured lands. You take a piece of land and restore it. You put in the plugs and drains and restore wetlands, and then you turn it over for resale. I think we heard that some of your partners could be ranchers or they could be conservation buyers.
One of the examples you gave was the Chemainus Estuary. Being on Vancouver Island, I actually wasn't aware of your work down there. It's a little bit off the highway, off the main route, and south of my area, but I'm glad to hear that you've been involved there.
Can you give us an idea of the turnover of a project like that in terms of the time involved and invested from beginning to end to make that work?
Director of Conservation Planning, Ducks Unlimited Canada
For Chemainus, there was no real restoration work that we had to do there, so there wasn't a lot of work we had to do once we acquired it. The work came primarily with getting all of the titles and subdivisions in place. As you probably are aware, British Columbia has a very complicated land system, so it has taken us a substantial amount of time just to get the agricultural areas re-surveyed and to have titles associated with them.
We just actually got that done two or three weeks ago. We bought it three years ago, so it has taken us some time to get to this point, but those agricultural lands will be coming up for sale this summer.
Conservative
James Lunney Conservative Nanaimo—Alberni, BC
What does the turnover on that look like? On the anticipated revenues from sales, considering the investment to make the purchase in the first place, is this a net win for you? Does it vary by region and from project to project? Could you comment on that?
Director of Conservation Planning, Ducks Unlimited Canada
It's going to depend on the project itself. In some cases—I'm going to use an example from the Prairies—if you're taking land that's already in grassland and you're simply going in and restoring the wetlands in that quarter section and holding it for maybe two or three years, you're probably going to break even or come close to breaking even.
However, if you're taking cropland, turning it into grassland, and restoring the wetlands, it's going to sell for a lower-dollar value, simply because cropland is valued higher than grassland. In those cases, we likely would lose some money.
Conservative
James Lunney Conservative Nanaimo—Alberni, BC
Yes, but it's great that it does cycle right back into more projects.
Director of Conservation Planning, Ducks Unlimited Canada
Exactly. You're reinvesting that capital. You're reinvesting in order to increase your conservation footprint on the ground. You still have some land in purchase or in ownership at any one time, but it's not the same piece of land. You're moving that around while you go about doing the restoration work.
Chief Executive Officer, Ducks Unlimited Canada
I might add that it's keeping landowners on the land. It's keeping the tax base in place and it's keeping production of the lands in some status.
Conservative
Conservative
James Lunney Conservative Nanaimo—Alberni, BC
Dr. Abiola, I want to thank you for the good work you're doing down there.
I wanted to give you a chance to talk a little bit about the research you're doing with plants and how they specifically target different minerals and pollutants, but I'm afraid we're out of time. Maybe you'll have a chance to address that as we move ahead.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Harold Albrecht
We'll come back to you, Dr. Abiola, in a few minutes if there's an opportunity.
Director of Applied Research and Lead Scientist, Olds College
Thank you.
Conservative
NDP
François Choquette NDP Drummond, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My thanks to the witnesses for being here with us today.
Mr. Abiola, I am happy to see you again. I had the opportunity to visit the wetlands you are working on and I would like to turn to the question of national inventory.
I am pleased that all the witnesses talked about it today because the witnesses from last week also mentioned the importance of having a national inventory. I am sure that the Conservatives will agree with us that this should be included in the report, given that you are unanimous on the issue.
Mr. Abiola, given that you are a scientist and you work in science, how could a national inventory of wetlands make it possible to better conserve them in Canada?
Director of Applied Research and Lead Scientist, Olds College
Thank you very much.
We really have to know where we are with the baseline information, where we are for us to know if we have accomplished anything, whether in the area of conservation or in the area of water quality.
Can you hear me?
Director of Applied Research and Lead Scientist, Olds College
A national wetland inventory, first of all, provides us with the baseline information of where we are.
The second thing is that the inventory is not only going to be the number of wetlands we have, but the types of wetlands. Therefore, over time, if there is going to be any change in the types of wetlands and in the functionality of the wetlands, we will be able to monitor those before it gets to a crisis situation.
As a scientist, in addition to knowing where the wetlands are and what types of wetlands, it will also be necessary for us to be able to continually assist and monitor the functionality of those wetlands.
NDP
François Choquette NDP Drummond, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Abiola.
I would like to continue talking about the importance of wetlands in the fight against climate change.
My colleague Ms. Quach also mentioned that wetlands are environmental goods and services and that they allow us to better adapt to climate change, which is a scourge right now. In my view and according to the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy and the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, the Conservatives have not done enough to address this problem and will unfortunately not meet their target for 2020. However, having a national investment plan to conserve wetlands can mitigate things, when it comes to draughts and floods, for instance.
What do you think about that, Mr. Abiola? If I still have some time, I would like to turn to the representatives from Ducks Unlimited Canada afterwards.
Director of Applied Research and Lead Scientist, Olds College
Actually, one of the main reasons why we put our own wetlands on the campus was to drought-proof our campus, because we know the benefit of the wetlands.
In our own campus, for example, we don't even use municipal water or any type of water for use on the farm for irrigation. We use the same water that goes through our process year by year.
The other fact is that in wetlands it's not just the plants. The accumulation of organic matter in the substrate is where a lot of the carbon has been sequestered, so if you drain the wetland, it's not only the plants that are gone, but the substrate and other things are gone.
One of the other scientific processes we are developing here is appropriate materials that we can use for constructing wetlands or substrate. We are working with some industry partners, and whether it is organic matter, whether it's from the forestry industry or from compost or other things, how to blend those together so that a wetland is developed is very effective.
Thank you.