Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House today on the occasion of the second reading of Bill C-29, an act to establish the Canadian parks agency and to amend other acts in consequence thereof.
This bill will make it possible to modernize the agency responsible for managing Canada's national parks, national historic sites and other protected heritage areas.
The mandate of this organization, presently known as the Parks Canada program of the Department of Canadian Heritage, is to play the leading role in federal government activities related to recognizing places representative of Canada's natural heritage and places of national historical importance, protecting these places and presenting them to the public.
Along with national parks and national historic sites these special places include historic canals, a system of heritage railway stations, heritage rivers, federal heritage buildings and the vibrant federal archaeological program as well as Canada's UNESCO world heritage sites including most recently a favourite of mine, the old town of Lunenburg in Nova Scotia.
The establishment of the Canadian parks agency will bring two main benefits to Canadians. First, and I say this to reassure and to respond to the concerns of the member for Churchill River. It is to assist in the creation of new national parks, the designation of additional national historic sites and the management of other related protected heritage areas including the creation of national marine conservation areas. In other words this is not an act of retrenchment. It is an act which permits the ultimate expansion of these programs.
The second is the continued delivery of quality service to Canadians at existing parks and sites.
Canadians attach great importance to their system of protected natural and cultural heritage areas. Our national parks, our national historic sites and other protected heritage areas are characteristic of the geography, history, culture, economy and even the identity of our country.
Canadians are joining forces to protect these exceptional sites and to further expand our system of national parks, national historic sites and other protected heritage areas. In so doing, we are not just protecting our environment and our historical and cultural artifacts; we are preserving what makes us Canadians, what sets us apart from the rest of the world.
We have every reason to be proud of these sites, which represent Canada and which are evidence of the sound and sustainable management of the cultural and environmental resources of our heritage.
I also reassure the member for Churchill that the new Canadian parks agency will not change the mandate of the Parks Canada program.
The act creating the agency will support and wherever possible strengthen that mandate, enhancing its stewardship role in relation to Canada's natural and cultural heritage.
The Canadian parks agency will remain fully accountable to the Minister of Canadian Heritage and to parliament. The agency will report to parliament through the Minister of Canadian Heritage who will retain power of direction over agency activities.
Finally, the National Parks Act and other legislation setting out the mandate of the program will continue to be enforced. In short, we will not be turning our national parks into Disney theme parks despite the concerns of the member opposite. Indeed, if anybody attempted to try to sell off Canada's national parks or to reduce their territory, they would have to come back to parliament to do so.
What will change is that a new framework will be put in place to administer these existing pieces of legislation.
The Canadian Parks Agency will differ from the existing organization in two significant ways.
First, control of the agency will be through direct hierarchic links between it and the Minister of Canadian Heritage.
Second, administrative provisions will be made to measure so as to respond to the agency's specific objectives and unique operational requirements.
In practical terms, this means that the Canadian Parks Agency will use the tools and instruments that best suit its highly decentralized and diversified operations.
The member for Jonquière raised a number of justified concerns on the proposed agency's financial arrangements. I want to reassure her that its financial management practices will still be governed by the Financial Administration Act. It will continue to prepare its main estimates and to receive parliamentary appropriations. The agency will still be audited by the office of the auditor general.
One of the main reasons for creating the Canadian Parks Agency was to ensure Canadians continued to enjoy a high level of service. Another objective was, to respond to the concerns of the member for Beauséjour—Petitcodiac, to create a stable administration that would provide parks' employees with some assurance their jobs would remain. In fact, there is even the possibility of extending jobs, contrary to what she feared.
To this end new flexibilities are being created. Canadians will benefit from them in very concrete ways such as the way in which the new agency will now be able to work toward the completion of the national parks system and the expansion of the system of national historic sites and other protected heritage areas as I described earlier.
For example, the Canadian parks agency will receive the authority to keep and spend most of its revenue. This will result in additional dollars for investment in new national parks, new national historic sites and other protected heritage areas. A new non-lapsing account will be used to fund the creation of new parks and sites, as well as to complete those parks and sites which have not yet been fully developed. This account would be able to carry moneys forward into the future and will help the agency achieve existing government commitments.
A two year rolling budget will make it easier for the agency to plan and carry out its expenditures and will result in a greater stability of service for Canadians and a greater stability of regime for employees.
The agency will also receive a higher level of delegated financial and administrative authorities from Treasury Board. This will reduce the time needed to make decisions and to get approvals.
The agency will continue to come under Government of Canada contracts regulations, but will have increased powers to manage the purchase and sale of properties, award architectural and engineering services contracts and award construction contracts.
The agency will be able to negotiate the optional delivery of certain common services with the departments responsible. Examples of these are surveying, property assessments, disposal of surplus assets, printing and publishing. This will put managers in a better position to seek out the most economical and convenient services.
In discussing the organization's mandate, it is important to note that, even if it does not have a direct mandate for tourism, it does play an important role, as the hon. member for Chicoutimi has pointed out, in visitors' image of Canada, helps maintain a prosperous and solid economy, and encourages sustainable development to the benefit of local communities.
Canada's national parks, national historical monuments and other protected heritage sites generate more than $2 billion yearly in direct and indirect economic benefits, which are of crucial importance to local economies in rural, isolated or economically underdeveloped regions. Once again, I am picking up on what the hon. member for Chicoutimi has said.
It is therefore very important to note that the Canadian Parks Agency will continue to operate Parks Canada's corporate units and urban townsites revolving funds, which are used to administer the hot springs in Banff, Jasper and Kootenay national parks, the golf course in Cape Breton Highlands National Park and the six townsites within a national park.
The future integrity of Canada's natural and cultural heritage sites will continue to represent a priority for the Canadian Parks Agency, as it does for the present government. The challenges facing Canada's heritage areas will continue to increase, as will the demands upon them. It is essential not only to design policies that can protect these irreplaceable treasures forever, but also to ensure that the organization with key responsibility for our heritage is equipped with the necessary tools and structures to fulfil the mandate with which the people of Canada have entrusted it.>
The legislation before us will enable the new Canadian parks agency to meet the challenges now facing our heritage areas in a most efficient way. It will continue to provide for the use and enjoyment of Canadians a system of national parks, national historic sites and related protected heritage areas and to manage these places in ways that leave them unimpaired for future generations.