Environment Committee on May 29th, 2014

[The Chair, Conservative, Harold Albrecht]

Thank you. We're well over time on that one. Thank you, Minister.

We'll move now to Mr. Sopuck for seven minutes.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair. It's just a quick inquiry. Would Ms. Leslie mind passing that chart around? I didn't get to see it.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Absolutely. Oh, it's only in one language.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

Could I see it afterwards?

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

It's on the Environment Canada website.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

Okay, thanks.

[The Chair, Conservative, Harold Albrecht]

Thank you, Mr. Storseth. I'm not sure that was a point of order, but we'll let it go.

Mr. Sopuck, you have seven minutes, please.

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

As you know, Minister, I'm a strong supporter of the national conservation plan. I am very pleased to be part of a government that has put forward such a tremendous initiative, which will have conservation benefits for decades to come.

I'm especially interested in conservation work by grassroots organizations, for example. I am really pleased to see that our government is providing funding to a group that does terrific on-the-ground conservation work, especially young people, and that's the Earth Rangers. Could you provide a brief background, for those who don't know, about the work done by the Earth Rangers and how our government is supporting grassroots organizations such as these?

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

Yes. Thank you, and thank you for that question.

Environment Canada, with the new funding for Earth Rangers, will expand its current programming to help children and their families learn about biodiversity and conservation across the country. Again, those programs, and programs of this nature, also support on-the-ground action in many communities such as raising funds to conserve and restore ecologically sensitive habitats.

By encouraging many young Canadians to get involved at an early age, and encouraging them as well as their families to spend time outdoors, the Earth Rangers programming is helping to connect Canadians to nature and to educate young Canadians about nature, which is also, as you mentioned, a priority under the national conservation plan the Prime Minister announced on May 15. We're very pleased to have partners like the Earth Rangers to be able to promote projects of this nature and the appreciation of the outdoors, and connect our young people.

Thank you.

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

One of the things that separates this Conservative government from our NDP friends across the way is our very strong emphasis on delivering real conservation results that actually improve the environment in measurable ways. One of my pet interests is landscape conservation, because one can see the benefits of landscape conservation for biodiversity, carbon sequestration, water management, and so on.

Representing an agricultural area like I do, I'm a very strong supporter of the ecological gifts program whereby landowners can make donations of ecologically sensitive lands to be conserved in perpetuity to deliver environmental benefits for Canadians. There was a significant announcement in budget 2014 to extend, for income tax purposes, the carry forward period for donations of these kinds of lands under the ecological gifts program. Can you elaborate on that and what your vision would be for this program?

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

Thank you for the question.

The ecological gifts program has resulted in donations of over 1,080 ecological gifts covering an area of more than 164 hectares, and the value of that is about $680 million. A wide variety of land has been protected under this particular program, including forests and grasslands across the country. In 2013 the program celebrated its 1,000th eco-gift and that was in Manitoba, in your province, which also consisted of 59 hectares as an example, making a huge difference on the ground.

By extending the carry forward period for those donations from five years to 10 years, certain donors will be able to gain greater tax credits for the program. The rate of contributing to the ecological gifts program, we're expecting, will also increase with that extended timeline. It is making a huge difference on the ground. Again, individual organizations of this nature are partners in the national conservation plan in protecting and restoring our own land, so it is making a huge difference.

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

While I appreciate the need for recovery strategies for species listed under the Species at Risk Act, a strategy is just a piece of paper in this modern world, just bits in a computer. In terms of delivering real on-the-ground conservation benefits for species at risk, these kinds of programs actually deliver the real thing. I'm very pleased to see that this is our government's emphasis in terms of actually delivering real on-the-ground results.

I have the pleasure of living next to a national park, Riding Mountain National Park. I was very pleased to see in the recent budget funding commitments for the improvement of the infrastructure in our national parks. Could you please talk about the parks infrastructure investments that will be going in over the next little while, these investments that were announced in the most recent budget?

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

Budget 2014 provided $391.5 million in infrastructure money over the next five years to make improvements in the areas of highways, bridges, and dams located within our national parks and along our heritage canals to deal with the aging infrastructure that we have.

Investments will significantly benefit many of the communities along, as an example, the Rideau Canal corridor, the Trent-Severn Waterway. Basically it's to deal with our aging infrastructure in parks, but at the same time those will also be opportunities to create jobs in those respective regions. It's much-needed investments that we're delivering in addressing infrastructure in our parks.

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

I don't want to embarrass your parks director, but rest assured that there will be a wish list from Riding Mountain National Park.

Thank you very much, Minister.

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Harold Albrecht]

Actually, you have 30 seconds to give them the wish list now.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

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

I'll be glad to transmit it at a later date. Thirty seconds isn't enough.

[The Chair, Conservative, Harold Albrecht]

Thank you, Mr. Sopuck, and thank you, Minister, for your response.

We move now to Mr. McKay, for seven minutes.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

I'll be happy to take Mr. Sopuck's 30 extra seconds.

Minister, are you aware that the federal government paid out $2.6 billion in disaster relief assistance last year, almost entirely from climate change-driven catastrophic weather events?

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

I'm going to pass that on to the deputy minister.

[The Chair, Conservative, Harold Albrecht]

Mr. Hamilton.

[Bob Hamilton]

Personally I'm not aware of the figure, but it doesn't surprise me that the amount we pay out to accommodate for disaster relief would be a significant amount. We have programs for that.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

It is a massive number, and it is climbing. Over the last four years it has averaged about a billion dollars, and it's getting off the chart.

If that is true, and the federal government is having to backstop climate change, we've gone from some sort of theoretical idea about climate change to a hit on the fisc, as Mr. Hamilton would know better than most. In fact, this one was about a $2-billion hit on fisc, which arguably kept the government from going into balance this year rather than next.

So what provision is being made for the almost inevitable increases of hits for disaster relief?

[Leona Aglukkaq, Conservative, Nunavut, NU]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I can speak to the initiatives of Environment Canada around the climate change adaptation initiatives that we administer. I can't speak to the Public Safety budget for disaster compensation to jurisdictions that are hit hard by natural disasters or to that particular program itself.

What I can say is that since 2006 we have invested adaptation initiatives in the range of $235 million to improve our understanding of climate change and to help Canadians plan. The funding support initiatives on adaptation in areas of human health are an example, as well as those for the north and for vulnerable communities. We're also working with programs to adapt our standards of building codes in the north and in other areas.