Evidence of meeting #35 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site.) The winning word was farming.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:20 p.m.
General Manager, Friends of the Rouge Watershed
No. A management plan should be specific. It shouldn't say “trust us”, it should write it down specifically. When the federal government signed the memorandum of agreement, they said specifically that in the creation and management of the park, they would meet or exceed the existing greenbelt, Oak Ridges Moraine, and provincial policies.
It needs to be specific.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Stephen Woodworth Conservative Kitchener Centre, ON
Is that the only one, or can you point me to another policy in here that you're not satisfied with?
5:20 p.m.
General Manager, Friends of the Rouge Watershed
The key ones are ecological integrity—
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Stephen Woodworth Conservative Kitchener Centre, ON
Well, this is something we've already discussed, and I don't agree with you that this is a policy; it's a goal or objective.
Can you tell me about a policy in this document, this draft plan, that is not equal to or greater than...?
5:20 p.m.
General Manager, Friends of the Rouge Watershed
The lack of priority-setting.... As everyone has said, it is in a protected area under international and national definitions, and unless you give priority to nature.... This is a little sliver, a piece of land, a tiny bit of the landscape that happens to survive.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Stephen Woodworth Conservative Kitchener Centre, ON
Since you're not telling me about a specific policy, I'm going to give my time to Mr. Calandra.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
Mr. Robb, you talked about the transfer of lands. The reality is that the MOU says no such thing. The MOU is specific to the lands that the province was going to transfer. So when you talk about the ecological corridor, which you suggest would go across the federal lands as well, that actually has nothing to do with the MOU that we signed with the provincial government. The reality is that was excluded. The provincial government spoke only...to meet or exceed on the lands that they were transferring.
You're suggesting that they suggested the entire park corridor. That's not true.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
The reality is that's completely not true, and that's how you have been selling this to people. That's how your petitions have been selling this to people. That is wrong. That's not in the MOU, and I suggest that if you're going to fight, you do it on the basis of reality, and not—
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Harold Albrecht
I'm going to give you a 15-second response. The bells are ringing; we need to adjourn.
5:20 p.m.
General Manager, Friends of the Rouge Watershed
There are two ecological corridors. There's one that goes outside of the provincial and federal lands onto the lands in Markham that were intended to be acquired long-term by willing seller, willing purchaser, and there's an alternate corridor that goes through the federal lands.
We are talking about the lands, Mr. Calandra, south of 16th Avenue, which are already legislated, but if you look at the overall planning context, it says right in the Rouge north plan that the expectation is there would be a 400-metre to 600-metre corridor going through the federal—
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Harold Albrecht
Okay, our time is up. We're going to have to adjourn because the bells are ringing—
The meeting is adjourned.