Madam Speaker, I am pleased to have this opportunity to make a few comments on Bill C-29, an act to establish the Canadian Parks Agency, which will be responsible for the administration of all legislation relating to national parks, national historic sites, national marine conservation areas and heritage areas. This bill will also make consequential amendments to other acts.
I am pleased to take part in this debate because I live in an area, the Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean area, that has always been known as having great potential for tourism. It took several decades before we could even hope that, some day, we would be on the list of Canadian national parks. With regard to the management of federal and even provincial parks, we realize that we must try to add new elements that will make park management more dynamic, if I can use that term, and that will involve local communities to a greater extent.
I will have the opportunity later on to make further comments on the contents of Bill C-29. In my own region, there is a provincial park, the Saguenay park, and there is also the marine national park. A co-operative effort is being made to try to meet common objectives for the development of our region and for the tourist industry of Quebec and of Canada as a whole. The efforts to establish the new national marine park directly affiliated with Parks Canada have been successful.
But we realize that, in both provincial and national parks, we must try to provide funding so that our managers can initiate productive projects for the future and give guarantees in order to eventually promote the direct involvement of municipalities and the private sector, and so that we can bring more people into our parks.
Through the involvement of regional sectors, both private and public, perhaps we could make some interesting changes to the parameters and criteria underlying the management of national and provincial parks.
I know very well that some efforts must be made to increase the number of visitors in our national and provincial parks. Some major corrective action must be taken to provide these parks with new facilities that would help attract more people.
For example, in my region, 200,000 visitors go to the mouth of the Saguenay River, to Tadoussac, in Charlevoix, but not even a quarter of them go to the Saguenay provincial park and marine park. We have to rethink a number of things.
I believe that the initiative to establish this agency will allow us to increase the participation of the people in the area. At the present time, it is very difficult to set up new infrastructures in these parks. I am referring, among other things, to the Saguenay—St. Lawrence marine park in our case. As has been done at Montmorency Falls, at Val-Jalbert and in national parks in western Canada, we could provide some means of access so that people could get to the extraordinary lookout site of Cap Trinité. It takes four and a half hours to walk to the statue.
Therefore, the people in the area, with the support of their federal member of Parliament, are thinking about setting up perhaps a cable-car or some other way to provide access to this site that is quite extraordinary.
We have to redesign the existing infrastructure, and the establishment of the parks agency will certainly be an opportunity for increased financial autonomy, making this agency less vulnerable to government interventions that are not always timely. I am convinced stakeholders will feel this agency is more open to their needs and suggestions than Parks Canada has been in the last few years.
I think the best way to successfully manage the assets that remind us of our past is to bring in people into the regions in great need of economic development through tourist, cultural and heritage attractions. People will certainly be more than happy to suggest to the brand new agency ways to make these extraordinary sites that are an important part of Canada's and Quebec's heritage more profitable and attractive.
I am sure people in the outlying regions will become more actively involved in the way parks are managed. If such an agency is established, as we hope it will be, I am sure it will be quite open to the recommendations of people who have an economic, cultural and social interest in bringing in more people to enhance our whole heritage infrastructure and boost park development.
There is still a great deal of work to be done, but the auditor general has told us he has serious doubts about the future of Canadian park development because of the budget cuts.
During the last few decades, funding was haphazard. I am sure that, with the new agency being established under Bill C-29, we will be able to consider more seriously the future of our heritage and tourist industry.
I am also convinced that my beautiful riding of Chicoutimi and my region of Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean will make a significant contribution to the development of our national parks. In my area, in particular, with the agency speeding up the structural development of national parks, we will be able to step up cooperation with existing provincial parks, as was done during the last few years.
Rest assured that our party will support this bill, because it is a step in the right direction. It is not perfect, but I am sure that the existence of this agency will make park managers more accountable. I remind the hon. members that Parks Canada was not even officially recognized. Under this bill, it will gain official recognition and receive guaranteed, statutory budgets. It will be assured of receiving the budget resources needed to promote development and also, I hope, to encourage cooperation among the stakeholders, who have different and very specific interests in regional development.
Our party will cooperate and support this bill which is a step in the right direction.