Evidence of meeting #52 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was alberta.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:30 a.m.
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
It's kind of a perverse incentive in the sense that if something bad happens, there's money generated, and the money generated goes to offset the something bad that's happened.
Give me an example of how your organization was able to access funds for a specific project.
9:30 a.m.
President, Alberta Fish and Game Association
Take our wildlife trust fund. When we raise funds to purchase deeded lands within the province, we source all the granting opportunities we can. This is one opportunity for us to access those funds so that we can set aside different properties throughout the province in perpetuity.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
When you're making that application, do you have to demonstrate in your application any climate benefit, such as carbon sequestration or possibly anything else you might think of?
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
All right.
Alberta, and I assume Saskatchewan as well, has been subjected to a lot of drought lately. I'm assuming that the three of you, over the course of the last few years, have made observations with respect to how that has affected species. I'd be interested in your observations as to how that has impacted what you do and the species mix, let's say over the last 10-year period. Alberta in particular has been subjected to a bit of a drought.
I'll start with you, Mr. Lowry.
9:35 a.m.
President, Alberta Fish and Game Association
Thank you.
That is correct. Species adapt to their conditions and are fairly fluid. In drought conditions, particularly with regard to the properties we look after under the wildlife trust fund and the operation grassland community program, we try to minimize the effects by managing the impact that agricultural activities can have on that land base. As Darrell Crabbe mentioned, most of our properties are managed for grazing in addition to the ecological and environmental benefits of the land base. If it dictates that there needs to be less grazing on that, given that moisture levels are low, then we adjust it accordingly.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
I want to bring in the other two witnesses. Are there any other observations with respect to how species have been changing in the last few years?
9:35 a.m.
Executive Director, Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation
Saskatchewan has been experiencing actually very high precipitation levels for the last number of years, and if you ask our friends in Manitoba, they're asking us to stop shipping water that way.
An interesting development has occurred from that, though. We have our pothole system here in Saskatchewan, which feeds a huge percentage of the duck production in North America. Our potholes are back; they're closer to probably 1960 levels than they have been for many years. There's been an interesting byproduct from that. We have a lot more farmers in Saskatchewan farming canola now, and all of a sudden we find ourselves with a lot of what we call “farmland moose” moving down into what you'd normally classify as prairie Saskatchewan. We have a very large moose population. We've determined through research that they're following the canola.
It's made quite an impact when you look at the numbers that are there. The fact that there are no predators and that there are lots of abandoned farmyards for them to live in has created quite an opportunity—and some challenges, too, obviously.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
Those moose are smart.
What about interspecies breeding? Have you noticed anything with respect to that? I've heard that coyotes and wolves seem to like each other these days.
Well...that one's not working, is it?
9:35 a.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
9:35 a.m.
Executive Director, Yukon Fish and Game Association
I don't think we've seen any sign of that so far, thankfully.
9:35 a.m.
Executive Director, Yukon Fish and Game Association
There are certainly a lot of both, but no interaction that we're aware of.
9:40 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Harold Albrecht
We'll move now to Mr. Choquette and into the five-minute rounds.
Mr. Choquette.
9:40 a.m.
NDP
François Choquette NDP Drummond, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I am going to give my speaking time to Mr. Bevington.
9:40 a.m.
NDP
Dennis Bevington NDP Northwest Territories, NT
Thanks very much.
In terms of that interbreeding, I guess the best example of that is in the Northwest Territories, where we now have what's called the “grolar bear”. That's a combination of a grizzly and a polar bear.
That's caused by changing habitat for the polar bears, which are moving inland. We see massive movements. Muskox now are moving south in the Northwest Territories, and we've certainly seen impacts on our caribou herds from climate change.
Within other regions, I guess, climate change hasn't really had that impact. Does anyone want to speak to that particular issue of climate change and the impact on wildlife in your regions?
9:40 a.m.
Executive Director, Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation
As we've mentioned, the climate change we're experiencing right now, with an amount of moisture that we haven't had for a number of years, is such that, as we quite often comment in our field, when it's raining, we're considering building arks, and it's helping ducks and fish. Something always seems to benefit from the climate change we're experiencing.
Again, there are also challenges that occur, but right now I would say that in Saskatchewan we're experiencing some of the most ideal climate for almost all of our species to really benefit from.
9:40 a.m.
President, Alberta Fish and Game Association
I would certainly concur with the comments that Mr. Crabbe made, in that we're seeing wildlife species expand the habitat or the territory they inhabit, especially the species that are more mobile, such as the moose and the elk. We have significant populations of elk out on the prairies now in addition to the moose. We're also finding that as they move eastward out of the mountain areas, the predators are starting to move eastward as well, so we're seeing more of a frequency of grizzly bears and wolves out in the white area, which we haven't seen in the past.
9:40 a.m.
Executive Director, Yukon Fish and Game Association
The same goes for us. As you mentioned earlier, we're seeing the muskox moving further. At least occasionally, we're seeing them move down the Dempster Highway. The caribou populations seem to be doing reasonably well.
There are other shifts, but as Darrell mentioned, we seem to be doing reasonably well in comparison to some places.