Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I appreciate what Madame Pauzé has offered. I think the potential here, though, is really to create a model based on a province that is already creating that model. It's to come in as a federal partner, which is something the federal government does all the time.
I somewhat reluctantly voted against Ms. Chatel's amendment to encourage the federal government to work with other provinces that are also interested in setting up such funds, but I think the potential here is really to augment and to amplify the work that's already going on in British Columbia and to create a model that can then be rolled out across the country.
The significance of British Columbia.... This comes back to a question that Mr. van Koeverden asked in his opening remarks: Why B.C.? The fresh water action plan that the federal government put in place in 2017 includes something like $70 million, I believe. The lion's share of that investment has gone to the Great Lakes, and rightly so. When it comes to fresh water, that's a major concern for Canada. Then Lake Winnipeg has received, I think, $25.7 million from that fund.
Three other watersheds are noted in the fresh water action plan—the Fraser, the MacKenzie and the St. John's—yet those watersheds haven't received funds through the fresh water action plan budget amount that was committed in 2017.
Obviously, in British Columbia, the Fraser is top of mind as a concern for a lot of folks. There's a tremendous amount of opportunity there. Like I mentioned at the beginning, part of that opportunity is the fact that there are so many organizations, first nations and communities that want to do this work. They're raring to go. They just need a federal partner that's willing to support that work with a financial contribution.
To be fully transparent, Mr. Chair, I represent Skeena—Bulkley Valley. It's a riding that is named for the Skeena watershed, which is B.C.'s second-largest watershed and one of our most important wild salmon systems. I grew up in the Fraser watershed, right at the headwaters of the Fraser River.
The work that's proposed as a part of this.... Of course the B.C. watershed security fund would disburse funds to all of the watersheds in B.C. I think it's really, truly a provincial effort. However, because it's such a huge watershed, the Fraser is a big opportunity. I know that right from the very top of the watershed to the estuary, there's a lot of work that can be done.
I think that's really why it's worth supporting a motion that focuses on British Columbia, because that's where a lot of this energy is. They're trying to create a new model around watershed governance that looks at watersheds differently.
We heard at our last meeting, I think it was, some testimony by one of the academic witnesses, who talked about the fact that watersheds often don't line up with political boundaries. Trying to think more bio-regionally and trying to think about how we come together around the health of watersheds and work together across communities and across differences to do that work is the really exciting part of this and why it's really worth supporting.
We're on the original motion, so I can also go back to Mr. Mazier's comment about job creation. It's true that some of the most direct job creation would come directly from the government investment in this fund. As I mentioned previously, it would also come from the private sector contributions that are leveraged through that fund. More important is the fact that healthy watersheds support all kinds of economic activity and all kinds of jobs. When we invest in restoring watersheds and when we invest in watershed resilience, other economic benefits will accrue from that.
If we think about the impact of the flood this past summer on agriculture, there is restoration work that we can do. There is stewardship work that could be funded through this fund that would actually result in better resilience for farmers to withstand future droughts. Of course, the jobs that rely on that agricultural activity.... In my area, a lot of it is beef and raising cattle. We saw just absolutely devastating consequences from the level five drought this past summer.
Farmers are still trying to have hay shipped up from the United States, at incredible cost. There are a few ranchers and farmers who are thinking ahead about how they can do this work differently and how they can manage their land in a different way so that they're more resilient against the impact of floods by rotating the grazing of their cattle and working with wetlands on their property and this sort of thing. I know this is a topic that Mr. Mazier is very passionate about, so that's why I mention it.