Mr. Chair, based on the change we just made, I may want to amend my own amendment. I was working off of the chapeau paragraph for mine, which was subsection (2), where we omitted the word “marine”. My amendments that work from there do the same thing.
Let me explain the purpose of the amendment, and then if it's acceptable to the committee to insert the word “marine” before “protected areas” in both instances in this amendment, that would be great, although someone other than me may need to move it.
This amendment comes from evidence and testimony you've heard from groups like Ecology Action Centre, West Coast Environmental Law, Conservation Council of New Brunswick, and so on. What we're looking at here is the network of protected areas and what the minister shall do to lead and coordinate its development. I'm adding a subclause to that, an additional subclause, (2.1), as follows:
(2.1) In performing his or her duties and functions under subsection (2), the Minister shall ensure that (a) clearly identified objectives are set with regard to each protected area; and (b) the network of protected areas covers diverse habitat types, biogeographic regions and environmental conditions.
This way, the network, like a network of terrestrial protected areas, talks about having representative ecosystems. A network suggests something different from an individual area. It's a question of putting together clear objectives for an individual protected area that we have within a network of several protected areas, diverse habitat types, biogeographic regions, and environmental conditions. In other words, a network is more than the same thing over and over again. You're looking for some diversity.
That's what amendment PV-1 would accomplish if you're so kind as to consider it.