Evidence of meeting #134 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was use.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
In terms of the money for The Great Trail, what is that specifically going to? Can you outline that a little bit? Is it for maintenance?
Acting Chief Executive Officer, Parks Canada Agency
It's covering two functions for the Trans Canada Trail, or The Great Trail.
One is enhancements and improvements to the trail infrastructure. Last year, we all celebrated Canada 150 but also the completion of the Trans Canada Trail. These investments will support ongoing improvements and enhancements to that now connected trail, plus capacity development for the communities that are involved in the delivery of the trail network.
Liberal
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
I don't need a whole minute and a half to invite you to come to Halifax and visit with me.
Liberal
Acting Chief Executive Officer, Parks Canada Agency
That's kind of you. Thank you. That's very generous.
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, AB
As I did last time, I'm going to pass my time to Mr. Stetski.
Liberal
NDP
Wayne Stetski NDP Kootenay—Columbia, BC
Thank you.
Thank you for being here today.
I want to follow up just quickly on the trail itself.
It's a spectacular initiative. It crosses Canada. It comes right through my riding of Kootenay—Columbia. The groups that helped to establish the trail, of course, have a concern about ongoing operational funding to maintain the trail. I'm sure that's true everywhere across Canada.
It says $7.5 million, and I guess that's for this year. I would like to see that become an annual operating expense for Parks Canada to have in their budget, rather than one time.
I don't know whether you can speak to that or just make note of it, Mr. Nadler.
Acting Chief Executive Officer, Parks Canada Agency
I think the Dewdney Trail is part of the network. Further to your comments during the last presentation, one of my first jobs was picking rocks and tossing bales in Lister, British Columbia, near Creston.
It was in budget 2017 that $30 million over five years was allocated to this initiative. Part of the supplementary estimates is actually reprofiling of that funding, to increase the amount but reduce the duration, so it's a four-year allocation.
We work very closely with the trail. In fact, it's an honour to collaborate with the Trans Canada Trail. They are looking at long-term funding options, including fundraising and other activities.
Right now, we have stable federal funding for them for the near future, but we are talking with them about their long-term plans.
NDP
Wayne Stetski NDP Kootenay—Columbia, BC
This isn't really new funding. This is restating...dividing it by four years rather than five.
Acting Chief Executive Officer, Parks Canada Agency
Yes, it's just a change in the profile of the funding.
NDP
Wayne Stetski NDP Kootenay—Columbia, BC
I'm quite surprised to not see anything in here concerning Wood Buffalo National Park.
As you know, the IUCN report from 2017 said that impacts on the park from development are “far more complex and severe than previously thought”. Wood Buffalo National Park was determined to have “the worst conservation outlook” for a natural world heritage site in Canada.
The report is due in December, if I remember right, in terms of responding to the IUCN report, yet I don't see any money in here for Wood Buffalo Park.
Acting Chief Executive Officer, Parks Canada Agency
Yes. In fact, as part of the nature legacy announcement in budget 2018, $27.5 million is going to our work with indigenous communities and other parties around the action plan for Wood Buffalo National Park.
Member Stetski, you're absolutely right. The deadline was December 1 for us to provide our action plan. One of the indigenous parties asked for an extension of that deadline, so our approach will be to table with the World Heritage Committee a state of the park report on December 1 and a draft of the action plan, but the actual final action plan would come in February.
There is one thing I want to mention. This year was a significant year for Wood Buffalo National Park. Many of you might be familiar with the whooping crane, which is a severely at-risk species. We set a new record for whooping crane nests in Wood Buffalo National Park, with 98 nests in the spring of this year. That's up from 82, which was the previous record. We're making significant strides on bison and on whooping cranes in that national park.
NDP
Wayne Stetski NDP Kootenay—Columbia, BC
That's even more reason to put some money into actually moving conservation forward there.
NDP
Wayne Stetski NDP Kootenay—Columbia, BC
I have four national parks in my riding of Kootenay—Columbia, including Kootenay National Park and Glacier National Park. I wonder if you could tell us a bit more about what the climate risk assessment would look like for Highway 395 and Highway 1 in terms of those parks. What's the objective for that?
Acting Chief Executive Officer, Parks Canada Agency
It's part of Transport Canada's broader initiative to assess the risks of climate change on our national transportation infrastructure. I don't have a lot more detail on the analyses as they are ongoing, so I can't give you an assessment of the current risk for that infrastructure.
NDP
Wayne Stetski NDP Kootenay—Columbia, BC
Would it be primarily around flood-proofing, do you think, or—
