Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you for inviting us to appear before this important committee.
SNAP Québec is the equivalent of CPAWS Ontario. The situation of protected areas in Quebec is similar to the situation in Canada. The network of protected areas in Quebec covers approximately 1% of the marine environment and a little less than 10% of the land environment.
Mining rights, oil permits and the forestry potential—in other words, the rights over the territory acquired by private interests—are the major obstacles to the fulfilment of Quebec’s and Canada’s international commitments to protect their territory. There are no effective legislative tools available to settle these impasses, to give real weight to the democratic will of the people and to advance the network of protected areas.
In Quebec, there are four active projects involving marine protected areas. The establishment of a protected area in the Magdalen Islands—