Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise to debate Bill C-27, an act respecting the national parks of Canada, at third reading. Let me begin by saying that Canadians respect and love their national parks. That is why they return to visit them year in and year out.
The first parks act of 1930 states that parks are hereby dedicated to the people of Canada for their benefit, education and enjoyment. Such parks shall be maintained and made use of as to leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations. Today's definition of use has not changed as we find it in subclause 4(1) of Bill C-27.
Canadians agree that the ecological integrity of our national parks needs to be preserved and protected for future generations. The Canadian Alliance agrees with the panel on ecological integrity that ecological integrity is the first priority and that efforts need to be made to manage, conserve and restore ecological integrity to our parks.
We do not agree with the notion of promoting restoration as a single objective. This approach to the concept of restoration is too open ended. To what time lines will restoration be returned? This is like the crimes against humanity debate when we are talking about 20th century crimes against humanity or whether we take it back to the age of the caveman.
We agree with the panel that people have a place in the parks. There certainly needs to be a balance. Another important point highlighted by the panel is that decisions made by the parks must be based on sound science, not just opinions of special interest groups or park officials.
Canadian Alliance agrees with the principle of limited growth. That is not the argument. The argument is about the lack of transparency, honesty and good will in the consultation process which has gone on for too long. There is a lack of trust in Parks Canada officials.
Allow me to make some positive comments about the rank and file Parks Canada employees. As public servants we need to thank them for their dedication to their work in our national parks. Parks Canada has many roles to fulfil beyond national parks. It is also responsible for historic sites. At this time let me thank the minister for supporting the designation of William Barker, VC, as a Canadian war hero.
Other jobs of Parks Canada are the marine conservation areas, federal historic buildings, historic railway stations, heritage river systems, federal archaeology and the grave sites of former prime ministers. I thank both the minister and the parliamentary secretary for supporting one of the Canadian Alliance's amendments which would mandate recognition of traditional supply water from a park when an agreement has been negotiated. I also thank the Parks Canada Agency and Tom Lee for their help in the acceptance of our amendment.
I would like to address some of the outstanding park issues that the bill does not properly address. The most important issue is about mandating consultation. Mandated consultation would improve the democratic process and develop a level of trust that does not currently exist today between the park tenants and the park administration.
Over the last two years I have done some extensive workshops with park residents to try to find out for myself what the issues were throughout the western parks. I have provided members of the heritage committee and the clerk the results of these workshops.
Consistently I have found that there tended to be a lack of trust between park officials and park users. Even when public consultation occurs public input was ignored. Time and time again it was pointed out that decisions made by park officials did not address the local needs.
It was repeatedly stated that Parks Canada should get out of the business of municipal governance and that it should be looking after parks, not town sites, where there is no expertise. Even publicly elected advisory committees are frustrated with Parks Canada on how it ignores advice.
Even when the consultation process was exercised it was not transparent, honest or accountable. Many park users found the consultation process difficult to understand. Another criticism was the lack of accountability in the way parks spent the money collected from the tenants through leases.
The issue of leases must be resolved so that it will be equitable to both parties through negotiation, not top down without any input. How could Parks Canada justify lease increases up to 10 times their current value without giving the property owner due process? It is in essence taxation without representation. If due process is not respected, what is the difference between Bill C-70 and Bill C-27?
What is needed is a comprehensive approach inviting both commercial and recreational tenant representation from all the parks to sit down at the table with park officials and resolve this contentious issue.
My findings were echoed by many of the witnesses coming before the heritage committee. Canadian Alliance made many amendments to address the issues of access and accountability which were defeated. Two amendments put forth by the Canadian Alliance were based on the principles of health and safety.
The first one is to mandate keeping open air strips located in all national parks for the purpose of public safety. COPA representing the general aviation sector in Canada has asked for this change for too many years. I believe that saving one life is worth putting this into the bill.
The second point is to mandate that all park wardens have all the resources to do their jobs without jeopardizing their health and safety. Whose lives will be jeopardized if this change is not made by Parks Canada? This is also long overdue.
Another direction which Canadian Alliance wanted to take was the recognition of local government bodies throughout this act. We believe that this would have been an inclusive approach to begin the recognition of municipal governments in Canada, a view supported by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
Let me close by saying that Bill C-27 had the potential to make the system more accountable. It would not have required a major overhaul. With a few more amendments the bill would ensure that the democratic process would be respected by all parties. The Canadian Alliance will not be supporting the bill as presented at third reading.