Thank you very much for the question.
You're quite right. I am very familiar with the park, having worked on the creation of it, and with many of the interests around the park, including some of the farmers who are currently overlapping with the park and are just adjacent to it.
The farming community has been a great asset to improving the ecological integrity. A really key point in developing the park was to actually have the buy-in of the farmers to see themselves having a role. I see increased and further roles for the farming and agricultural community, so that they can be engaged in improving the ecological integrity of the park.
Quite frankly, we've only just begun. It's early and it's in its development. It's been perhaps four years now, maybe three, that the park has been fully operational.
I know the park superintendent has prioritized various areas where there has been development. I suspect we will be moving further north with anything from signage to interpretation; a visitor centre, which will be a very important piece; programs, like restoration and building better hydrology for the park, a very key element; and reintroduction of species.
What we're seeing now is an investment in science. The partnership with the Toronto Zoo and the University of Toronto, along with various science and reintroduction programs and ecological restoration projects will be going forward. We will only see more of those and not fewer.
When I recently spoke to the park superintendent to get an idea of just how many trees could be planted in the park, for example, my understanding was that the Rouge National Urban Park could accommodate up to 500,000 more trees over an 18-month period.
The catch on this is that the supply chain for trees is limited, so making investments in growers who could supply Rouge National Urban Park with the right trees to the right places would start to generate jobs and volunteer opportunities, quite frankly, as well.
This park, which is within an hour's reach of seven million Canadians, is the perfect place to be investing. It is also about improving water retention in management levels for this area, which benefits everybody. I live within 10 minutes of Rouge National Urban Park, admittedly, in the south, but it actually was the area that survived the ice storm in 2013 the best, because of the native species and the tree canopy we have there.
I suspect we will only see more jobs emerging from the regeneration of nature in this area.