Biodiversity and conservation of wildlife and habitat are responsibilities shared by the federal government, the provinces and territories, other departments within the federal government, and all Canadians. Protection of ecologically valuable areas and the stewardship of working landscapes is the key to preserving both habitat and the wild species that occupy the various spaces across Canada. We are working on this. We remain committed to the aspirational goals of protecting and preserving spaces of land in each of the more than three dozen distinct natural areas across this great country, east to west and south to north. At the moment we are working to expand not only our terrestrial protected spaces, but also our marine protected areas. While we have been encouraged by some organizations to do more in a shorter timeframe, the reality is that because of the consultations required with the provinces, territories, and first nations, and because of the regular election cycles, we have been proceeding deliberately. Parks Canada, for example, has four major marine protected areas. We're working on three more now, including Lancaster Sound—the “Serengeti of the Arctic”—and we will continue working in that direction in the years ahead.
On June 4th, 2013. See this statement in context.