Environment Committee on Oct. 18th, 2016

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

I'll go back to parks. You talked about staffing. When we talk about some ideas in parks, it's usually about indigenous species. What about staffing?

[Robin Lessard]

Can you say that again?

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Staffing: are there indigenous staff in the parks that you're talking about?

[Robin Lessard]

Yes. Well, Pukaskwa has a special agreement.

Right now,

I believe 50% of our staff are indigenous.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Is that a target or is that just where you're at?

[Robin Lessard]

That's where we are. That was a target that was established, but it's really specific to Pukaskwa. In this case, that's something we've been able to maintain for quite a while, I understand.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

That's awesome. That was the question I wanted to ask. Well done.

Mr. Stetski.

[Wayne Stetski, NDP, Kootenay—Columbia, BC]

Thank you. I have a question for each of you, if I may.

Mr. McNamee, it's been a while since you've been with us. I'm interested in hearing what sort of progress has been made from your perspective in reaching the targets and whether any new challenges have come up.

Mr. Lessard, I'm interested in terms of your region or area of responsibility. You may need to look to Mr. McNamee for assistance, but which ecosystems, whether they're water based or land based, are currently under-represented in your area and perhaps should be added through the process?

Ms. D'Amelio, my riding is in southeastern British Columbia, home of the westslope cutthroat trout, bull trout, and the world's largest rainbow trout, the Gerrard.

[A voice]

It even has a name.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Wayne Stetski, NDP, Kootenay—Columbia, BC]

I'm interested in whether your group has actually identified areas that you'd like to see protected. By the way, I really like your concept of wild and scenic rivers as a mechanism to help us meet our targets.

Maybe we could start with Mr. McNamee.

[Kevin McNamee, Director, Protected Areas Establishment Branch, Parks Canada Agency]

Thank you for the question, Mr. Stetski.

The committee has been previously briefed in terms of the work that we are co-leading with the Government of Alberta in working with other governments, indigenous governments and others. If I may, let me suggest that in a number of weeks it might be worthwhile to ask representatives of Parks Canada to return, because I think we'd be in a better position at that time to speak to plans, or further plans, in terms of the 17%.

In terms of new national parks and national marine conservation areas, we continue to pursue, as per the announcement in budget 2016, Thaidene Nene, the proposed national park reserve that this committee has heard about. We've been making progress there. We've completed the public consultation. We have firmed up and are pretty close to completing our agreements with the Lutsel K'e Dene First Nation and the N.W.T. Métis Nation. The Government of the Northwest Territories has informed us that they have now appointed a senior negotiator for the land transfer agreement, so we're going to be making some solid progress to try to complete that one in 2017.

Certainly since I've had the chance with the committee, in terms of Lancaster Sound, the steering committee leading that one is close to completing its work. As you're well aware, Shell Canada relinquished some of their leases to that area. You also heard from the Cree Nation government of our interest in pursuing a national marine conservation area within their territory, and we are currently working with them, as they informed you, on an MOU to formally launch a feasibility assessment.

I'll leave it at that.

[Robin Lessard]

I take note of the targets, but what I would like to say about northern Ontario is in terms of how we represent the different realities of the sites that Parks Canada manages.

In northern Ontario, I'm really proud to say that we manage one national marine conservation area, which is the Lake Superior NMCA. This is fairly wide, as I mentioned in my presentation, and it's going to be one of the largest freshwater protected areas in the world. We also have a fairly wide national park, which is Pukaskwa. We have one national historic site, which is Fort St. Joseph. We also have a national historic site, a canal, in Sault Ste. Marie.

What I want to tell you in my answer is that in northern Ontario I feel very privileged to be working with the different varieties of parks offered. In the area we cover, two of these areas are fairly significant.

In terms of under-representation and targets, I think I'd rather get back to you. Probably Kevin is better placed to come back to you at a later stage.

[Wayne Stetski, NDP, Kootenay—Columbia, BC]

We'd better move on before I get cut off here.

Go ahead.

[Silvia D'Amelio]

As far as areas go, sure, I could give you a list.

I think the underlying factor for all the areas that Trout Unlimited would identify is the value and the ecological function of the spaces. Those spaces tend to be what our national biologists refer to as “endangered spaces”, and those are headwaters.

Think of the foothills of Alberta. Once those waters are actually utilized and taken up, for whatever reason, or once land use practices actually change the hydro-geography of that area, everything downstream, which is basically all of southern Alberta, is realizing some significant impact in water quality, flooding, and all those sorts of things.

These headwater areas across the country, not just in the foothills, are extremely important. We were thrilled to hear about the first-ever habitat protection order for cutthroat trout. That was absolutely amazing. As a result, I think the province there put some protection through the Castle wilderness area there.

Unfortunately, actions and land use practices are still such that the habitat is being degraded, so we need to talk about what these protected areas look like. Is it okay to run ATVs through these rivers non-stop and disrupt spawning? Is it okay to disrupt groundwater upwelling? I think my answer would be that headwaters are where we need to start.

[The Chair, Liberal, Deb Schulte]

That's awesome. Thank you very much. I appreciate that.

Mr. Gerretsen.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I'm going to get six minutes, right? I'm going to try to save a minute for Mr. Amos.

I want to go back to Parks Canada. With Canada being 150 years old next year, you're fully aware that the government is going to open parks up to visitation for free. The whole idea behind it is to get people more engaged in the amazing assets that we have, to celebrate them, and, I think, to inform people about why they're so important and what they mean to us as Canadians. I'm wondering if you can comment on the value of having individuals visit our parks and whether you see value in that in terms of our ability to establish more and maintain what we have.

[Robin Lessard]

I am pleased to answer that question.

To protect our places and show what we are doing, it is absolutely essential that we form connections with Canadians and visitors. Canada's 150th anniversary is an absolutely extraordinary opportunity for this.

We want to win the hearts and minds of Canadians.

We are taking good, concrete measures to protect our parks. However, the people who visit us don't see them.

Once people visit our locations, and we introduce them to these places, they will come back. They will become ambassadors, which will bring more people to our places.

We know that there are demographic changes in society. More and more people live in cities. These people don't always know about Parks Canada sites since most of our parks aren't located in cities. But we're lucky because some of them are in cities. However, some of our sites are very far away from large urban centres.

So it is important to take the opportunity of Canada's 150th anniversary to make connections with Canadians, to introduce them to the beauty of our sites and to share with them what we do to protect our natural and cultural resources.

I hope I have answered your question satisfactorily.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

I like your strategy of giving the first one for free and then getting them to come back and start paying for them.

Do you have something to add, Mr. McNamee?

[Kevin McNamee]

Yes.

I just want to remind the committee of what I think is an important point, because I think people quote various pieces of section 4 of the Canada National Parks Act. Since 1930, when Parliament first affirmed the purpose of parks, section 4 has never changed. It reads as follows:

The national parks of Canada are hereby dedicated to the people of Canada for their benefit, education and enjoyment...and the parks shall be maintained and made use of so as to leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.

That is a mandate we take seriously, and the ecological integrity element was added to it, but I think it's important to quote that entire clause and to realize that it has stood the test of time and many Parliaments since 1930.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Thank you for that.

The other things I want to touch on before I turn it over to Mr. Amos are demographics and trends on visitation. Do you have some of that information that you can share with us? If not right now, could you provide it to us later on? I'm curious to know the demographics of who is visiting. Do you keep data on that? Do you use it in order to help attract more people?

[Robin Lessard]

The simple answer is yes. We look at this to make sure that we use it appropriately. We would have to come back with the data.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Could you provide that as a follow-up submission?

[Kevin McNamee]

Yes.