Evidence of meeting #68 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 parks.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
John Aldag Liberal Cloverdale—Langley City, BC
Okay.
Does Parks Canada get any oceans protection plan funds?
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Vice-President, Strategic Policy and Investment, Parks Canada Agency
I don't believe so.
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Vice-President, Strategic Policy and Investment, Parks Canada Agency
I don't believe so.
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Liberal
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NDP
Linda Duncan NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
My questions fall well after John's.
I am informed that we already have a lot of staff vacancies in the national parks, particularly in interpretation. Certainly, that's the case in Alberta. There is going to be a heightened workload because of the minister's inviting everybody and their dog to the park—hopefully no dogs off leash. It's important for visiting the park, and I'm sure John can speak to this, that you have a quality experience, and the staff could have burnout. Plus, if we are going to have only students now, that's more work to supervise. When can we expect that all these vacancies are going to be filled?
My second question is this. I am hearing concerns from people in Banff. Your budget says to expand the national parks. There are people who do not want the Banff town boundaries expanded. I'm wondering if you could speak to that process as well.
4:55 p.m.
Vice-President, Protected Areas Establishment and Conservation, Parks Canada Agency
Those are two different things, the expansion of the Banff townsite versus the expansion of national parks. We are interested in expanding the number of national parks to fill out our systems plan, and we are undertaking negotiations in—
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NDP
Linda Duncan NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
My question is about the townsites, not about expanding the parks protection.
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Vice-President, Strategic Policy and Investment, Parks Canada Agency
I'm fairly new to Parks. I wish I could give you a more comprehensive answer, but in terms of townsite management, it is a real collaboration.
In the case of Banff, it's an incorporated municipality, so it has quite a bit of power, unlike any other townsite. My experience so far is that things don't happen in the Banff municipality without the municipality driving much of it. It does all of its own development planning and things like that. I have no knowledge of anybody thinking about expanding the municipality. If it does happen, then it will push up against Parks Canada's normal operations and mandate.
4:55 p.m.
Vice-President, Strategic Policy and Investment, Parks Canada Agency
That's a good question.
Gosh, we are always trying to hire folks. It's hard to say. Staffing anywhere is a challenge in a country with a fairly active labour market. I think the important part, and my colleague didn't quite touch on this, is that we work very closely with our bargaining agents. We met with them even last week, to find the balance between seasonal employees, student employees, and indeterminate and term employees. Our parks generally don't operate 12 months of the year, so it is quite an interesting equation that we have to do to provide that high level of service when things really push up through the summer season. We do, of course, try to maximize and do our best to have a base that's there to operate the things that we do 12 months of the year.
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NDP
Linda Duncan NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
It doesn't sound like there is going to be fast-track hiring.
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Vice-President, Strategic Policy and Investment, Parks Canada Agency
I didn't say that. I just said there is a balance in how one does human resources in that complex environment.
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Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
Thank you very much. That was very good. We had some good questions, and you can get the general gist of where the committee is with some of the work you're doing. We are very anxious to hear the answers that you were saying you would report back. We look forward to receiving that. I'm sure there will be more questions coming as we see more of what's unfolding in the coming months. Thanks again.
I'm going to suspend the meeting temporarily until we go in camera for the next session.
[Proceedings continue in camera]