Good afternoon.
Thank you for the opportunity to present to the committee.
My name is Janet Sumner. I'm executive director for CPAWS' Wildlands League. The mission of CPAWS and of the Wildlands League is protecting large, connected areas of Canada's wilderness. We work on large landscapes collaborating with indigenous, federal, provincial, and local governments. Our work with the forestry sector leads the way on caribou planning, and it is in our DNA to build solutions.
I've been the executive director for Wildlands League for the past 13 years. I've travelled this province extensively, especially in the far north. I've slept with polar bears—not right next to them—and walked among a herd of barren ground caribou. I've flown forestry units from Alberta to Ontario. I love this land, and it is my intention to make sure the children in my life, my grandchildren, nieces, and nephews, inherit a country where nature thrives. The children of the GTA, Scarborough where I live, Pickering, Durham, and the surrounding regions of the Rouge deserve that, too.
To that end, I would like to thank all the political parties for their efforts to protect Rouge Park, which Jim mentioned. Over the years all the political parties have contributed to getting the Rouge to this stage. While the Rouge is not a great wilderness area, it is a rare piece of Carolinian forest. It is an anchor for biodiversity in the GTA with over 1,700 species. It provides much needed habitat for migratory monarch butterflies as they wend their way south.
With regard to the bill before you, Bill C-18, I would like to thank the Honourable Catherine McKenna and her team for working diligently to come up with the solutions that rectify the critical weakness in the Rouge National Urban Park Act, the failure to prioritize nature conservation in park management and meet the international definition of a protected area.
I would also like to thank Daniel Watson, CEO of Parks Canada, and his team for patiently listening to Canadians and working so hard in their efforts to support this bill. Daniel had to listen to me for a lot of hours.
The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society Wildlands League supports the amendments in Bill C-18 to amend the Rouge National Urban Park Act to prioritize ecological integrity in law in the management of the park. From the red-shouldered hawk and peregrine falcon to the butternut tree and the beautiful monarch butterfly, this is huge. Nature will finally come first.
With seven million people living within one hour's drive of the Rouge National Urban Park, park managers need strong legal tools to protect the park's ecosystem from the inevitable pressures of the surrounding urban environment, which is easily the greatest threat to the park. This includes an explicit legal mandate to consider nature first and foremost in all management decisions. Without such a framework, nature would inevitably lose.
We agree with the greater certainty for the farming community that is proposed in this bill as well, and we look forward to working with farmers on the many ways we can improve the ecological integrity of the park. EI is a destination we believe can work with farmers. Rouge Park houses much of the lower Rouge River watershed, one of the last flowing into western Lake Ontario to remain free of urban development. It provides the only ecological connection for wildlife between the Oak Ridges Moraine and Lake Ontario. It is where we host our annual Paddle the Rouge event each year, training youth to paddle. It is also where I live and where I enjoy time with my grandson as he dips his paddle in and remarks to me, “It's so peaceful here.”
I am pleased to answer your questions.
Thank you.