Thank you for having us, everybody.
I think the federal government has a key role to play in protecting our aquatic ecosystems from aquatic invasive species and terrestrial invasive species. In terms of fresh waters, the goals of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which is our federal entity, are preventing the introduction of aquatic invasive species, or AIS, responding rapidly to new AIS that are detected and managing the spread of present AIS.
Aquatic invasive species and terrestrial invasive species have extremely detrimental impacts across the country. Environment and Climate Change Canada estimates that 16 invasive species cost us anywhere between $13 billion to $39 billion annually. That's a huge number of taxpayers' dollars, and it's felt across the board in terms of management, response, impacts to property values, impacts to ecosystems, ecosystem services, native species and you name it.
That's what we need from the federal government. They need to be funding programs such as the DFO AIS program, which only receives approximately $10 million per year. That AIS core program is responsible for the species that are having an impact in the tens to thirties of billions of dollars every single year. It's very fundamental that we fund this type of work, especially at the federal level.