Environment Committee on Feb. 27th, 2020

[Andrew Campbell]

You are extremely timely.

[Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

Will the funds spent be replaced? I gather there have been a lot of funds already spent so that the hot pools can continue with the modernization of the building as had been planned.

[Andrew Campbell]

Yes. These funds will be extraordinary, meaning on top of the amount that we already have, the $9.5 million that has already being appropriated and expended in the rejuvenation of the hot pools.

[Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

I'm interested in what you're doing as part of marine protection. You said you had five, I think, marine protected areas that you're involved with. What is your role with marine protection?

[Darlene Upton]

Parks Canada has a National Marine Conservation Areas Act. Although the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is the lead federal department for reporting on the percentage of protected areas, Parks Canada has its own legislation and establishes national marine conservation areas.

Gwaii Haanas, Fathom Five, Lake Superior and Saguenay-St. Lawrence are some of the marine protected areas we have. We're currently working on the southern Strait of Georgia and Îles de la Madeleine. We're working with DFO in partnership in the High Arctic for quite a large national marine conservation area. All of those will then contribute to Canada's percentage targets for protection.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Thank you.

Mr. Longfield, you have six minutes.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to the team from Parks Canada for your presentations, in particular Andrew Campbell, brother of Malcolm Campbell, vice-president of research at the University of Guelph, who is focused on improving life through research. The contributions your family is making to Canada are much appreciated.

Your team mentioned indigenous peoples several times, and call to action 79 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission calls for “...the federal government, in collaboration with Survivors, Aboriginal organizations, and the arts community, to develop a reconciliation framework for Canadian heritage and commemoration.” I was looking for opportunities for us to study items within the departments that we have in front of us.

Stephen, you mentioned “Mapping Change”, the mapping time report with indigenous peoples in 2019. How do we engage with indigenous peoples in terms of promoting culture, of drawing attention to culture or working with them through employment? Is that a report that we should maybe dive into a little deeper? It's not that you can tell us what to do, but it sounds interesting.

[Stephen Van Dine]

No, I can't tell you what to do. Let's be clear.

That is a particular document that we have invested quite a bit of time and energy into as a key piece on our reconciliation agenda. It's been designed to allow us to modernize and contemporize stories that have already been told by Canada and Canadians to Canadians through more of an indigenous lens. The process by which we are revising or updating is key to that particular objective.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

I'm the previous chair of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship. I'm interested in the opportunities that we present to new Canadians. When they go through their oath of citizenship, they get a free pass for one year to visit Parks Canada as part of our integration programs.

We've talked a little about indigenous people, but what about newcomers to Canada? Also mentioned was Learn-to Camp. I know some parks set up tents for you. You just show up, and they help you get into the camping experience.

How do we integrate newcomers through Parks Canada? Michael, would you comment?

[Michael Nadler]

That's an excellent question. Thanks for posing it.

In fact, over the past six years, Parks Canada has been orienting more and more of its programs toward the rich diversity of Canada's population. A key audience or client group for us is new Canadians and new citizens. There's an array of programs that we offer.

You're absolutely right that our outreach program is directed largely to people who may not yet have visited a Parks Canada place or who may not yet have embraced Canada's outdoors or Canada's historic places, for all manner of reasons. The Learn-to Camp program, for example, is delivered in communities across the country. We partner with newcomer organizations for specific delivery to that audience, both in urban and in rural settings, but also in our places for overnight experiences.

We've also adapted a number of our elements of visitor infrastructure to better reflect the diversity of Canada's population. We're working to make our places more accessible. We're working to ensure that our places are more culturally neutral and can receive people of multiple cultures and backgrounds.

We're also working to ensure that we're equally inviting to the LGBTQ community, so we're adapting values of gender equity and better balance in our infrastructure.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

I'm looking to bridge these two ideas. In the House right now, we're debating changes to our citizenship oath that would include recognition of indigenous peoples as part of Canada's heritage.

In terms of indigenous tourism or opportunities for newcomers or other Canadians to experience life as indigenous people did before colonialization, is there any work afoot in terms of bringing forward indigenous culture through indigenous tourism in our parks?

[Michael Nadler]

There's a great deal of work. Andrew mentioned at the outset that we collaborate with indigenous communities across the country on the operations of our places, and that includes the visitor offer.

Our approach is to empower indigenous communities to share their culture, history and traditions with Canadians directly. We facilitate that kind of visitor experience delivery.

In our outreach programming, we also work with indigenous communities. One great example is a recent Learn-to Camp experience in which we brought together the Mi'kmaq community and newcomers. I'll see if I can get a video reference sent to the clerk of the committee. You'll see this fabulous interaction of newcomers' music with Mi'kmaq drumming.

I agree that the Parks Canada settings are a welcoming place for everyone, and a place where cultures can intermingle and be shared.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Thank you.

Ms. Pauzé is next.

You have six minutes, Ms. Pauzé.

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Nadler, for the lovely documentation. It's a wonderful site, quite interesting to look at and read.

According to your presentation, “ecological integrity is the first priority in all decision-making in national parks”.

What do you mean by “first priority”? I have an example to share with you after.

[Andrew Campbell]

I'm going to let Ms. Upton answer that.

[Darlene Upton]

Thank you for your question. I'll do my best to answer in the language in which it was asked.

Under our administration, ecological integrity is our number one priority. What that means is, when we create things like visitor programs, our first consideration is their impact on ecological integrity. That is the case for every program, no matter what it is. We also have a monitoring program for every single park in the country, so we have a good understanding of

current state of our parks and our places, so we understand where our risks are. We're able in that way to take that into consideration in making decisions, whether they be infrastructure decisions or visitor programming decisions.

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

How much authority do you have when it comes to not allowing a development project to proceed in a protected area like a marine protected area? I have an example for you, the Saguenay estuary, in Quebec. It's currently a protected area, in particular, because of the presence of belugas. Nevertheless, many projects would bring large vessels to the area. What authority do you have in that respect? Can you oppose the project?

[Darlene Upton]

We have legislative protection. In particular, in that place we have that piece of legislation that helps define our role, and then as a federal department we work with the impact assessment agencies, so any projects that move forward would be going through environmental assessment.

Our role gets determined by the impact in that legislation. We would participate in projects, in the assessment of projects and the potential impacts on our places. The scope of our participation depends on the type of impact and the mandate of the agency.

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Do you have some sort of right of redress—and I'll tie in the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada—to deal with developers who might trample on you and push ahead with their projects despite their detrimental impact?

[Darlene Upton]

It would depend on the legislation, on what that particular impact might be and our ability to demonstrate actual impacts. It's going to depend.

[Andrew Campbell]

I would also point out that we have a management plan for each site throughout the country. The plan sets out planning tools to improve the park's or marine area's ecological integrity, while controlling the activities being carried out there for the next 10 years. The management plan is tabled in the House of Commons following consultation with local communities.

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

I'm going to stay on the topic of protected areas. As we know, climate change is causing significant environmental degradation. Given that it's already March, I'd like to know how you're going to achieve the country's 17% conservation target for protected areas by 2020—I assume that means by December 2020.

[Darlene Upton]

For both the terrestrial and the marine environment, Parks Canada has a systems plan whereby we've divided the country. For marine conservation, we have 29 natural regions. The mandate of the agency is to have a representative placed in each of those regions.

The first thing we do is look at the region. We study all the values and what's most at risk. We select an area and we move in partnership, often with the provinces and indigenous communities, on a feasibility study. That's the first step toward the establishment. If we determine that the park is feasible, we then move into negotiating agreements.

We have a very set process for that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

You have lovely questions, but your time is up.

Madam Collins, you have six minutes.

[Laurel Collins, NDP, Victoria, BC]

I'm going to pick up on some of the questions that were just asked.

With regard to marine protected areas, taking, for example, the southern Strait of Georgia, where are you in that process? Can you walk me through how you got to where you are and what the next steps are?