Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak to this bill which I believe was tabled last April. It is much awaited endangered species legislation. While all Canadians support prudent measures to protect species at risk, this bill simply goes too far.
This piece of Liberal legislation was introduced by the environment minister. It will have a profound impact on property owners. It will essentially make them criminals if they fail to protect endangered species or habitat on their land. The bill gives the federal government the power and the capacity to pass emergency orders that will force property owners to halt economic activities that may adversely affect the species or habitat in question.
Further, there is no clear formula for compensation outlined in the bill. By ignoring this issue, any hope the minister had for co-operation among landowners, conservation groups and the government is tossed right out the window. Compensation for expropriated land that is not at market value is simply not fair. It will adversely affect ranchers and farmers, just to name a few.
I am familiar with the situation in certain areas of the United States where this type of legislation has been attempted. Unfortunately it has been to the detriment of endangered species. The expression used in many areas south of the border because of this kind of legislation is: shoot, shovel and shut up. It expresses the feeling among landowners in the U.S. that it is better to quietly dispose of endangered species than protect them through less draconian measures.
Some have gone so far as to destroy land or habitat that they feared could potentially host or attract endangered species. This was to avoid potential problems with their federal government down the road.
Many people with whom I am acquainted have lost their land to the federal government. The land has become the property of the state and compensation was never part of the consideration. This just cannot be done to people.
There will, of course, be lots of lawsuits and families will attempt to recover the losses they will have by these draconian measures. If our government is interested in that kind of thing taking place, where we are constantly in the courts settling disputes because we have a constitution and a charter of rights that does not recognize property rights, there will be some real problems. The legislation will make these problems quite capable of occurring.
The ranchers and the landowners in Alberta are good stewards of the land and they all have a personal interest in preserving our natural heritage. They want to do it. There are also over 100 conservation groups in existence that do an effective job of managing millions of hectares of wildlife sanctuaries.
Canadians recognize that we need a proactive approach to protecting species at risk that is based on respect: respect for the species that inhabit our land and waters and respect for those who own and work the land. What we do not need is legislation that makes criminals out of all of us.
The Canadian Alliance is committed to protecting and preserving Canada's natural environment and endangered species, and to sustainable development of our abundant natural resources for the use of current and future generations. The Canadian Alliance maintains that for any endangered species legislation to be effective, it must respect the fundamental rights of private property owners. This legislation does not do that.
Compensation for expropriated land that is not at fair market value is simply not fair. There is no clear formula for compensation outlined in this particular bill. Compensation will be dealt with through regulations following the passage of the bill. How many times have we seen that with this government? It passes the bill then brings in the legislation and socks it to Canadians.
The government does not have the courage to bring these things forward and have them included in the bill. Government members like to slam the door, usually through some kind of hurried legislation. Getting it through is the main thing. They put closure on it and then the regulations will be in effect.
This minister as well as other ministers in this government have this backwards. If we are going to have good legislation we need co-operation among the stakeholders. This is unlikely unless landowners are assured that any land expropriated for the purpose of species or habitat protection and recovery will be expropriated at fair market value. If that is not discussed and built into the legislation prior to the passage of the legislation, we can kiss those stakeholders goodbye. They will sit back and wait for the draconian regulations to come in that will make criminals out of them.
I could name other legislation which makes people feel like they are the criminal all of a sudden. We have law abiding people who feel they have been placed into the criminal element because of the government's lack of proper consultation and working together with other stakeholders.
There is no recovery plan. They should be integrated into all the activities. There should be a recovery plan which includes the costs associated with the recovery of any given species or habitat. Without such planning, we will find ourselves listing species that we have no capacity to protect.
The Canadian Alliance supports an independent scientific listing body, such as the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. We also recognize the role and authority of parliament in recovery planning. That is our role.
However, the Liberals have introduced legislation which threatens to use criminal sanctions in addition to its powers of expropriation. Any attempts to expropriate private property should be subject to a process and that process should be a review which offers some form of arbitration or dispute resolution to the landowners. It does not exist in this legislation. Where warranted, and only after a fair dispute resolution process has been completed, the expropriation of private land at fair market value is reasonable.
The majority of producers and landowners believe that the government could achieve its intention in protecting wildlife and endangered species through a much more co-operative attitude with farmers and ranchers instead of threats of punishment.
I encourage the government today to look at its legislation and recognize the fact that it is not building bridges between all these stakeholders who exist when it comes to this kind of legislation. Rather, it is putting up walls of resistance because of its constant threats to the law-abiding people of the land through this kind of legislation which says “If you don't do it our way, we'll sue the tail off you”. Threatening and abusing the landowners to that degree is unacceptable and, unless the legislation is amended properly, there will be no support coming from this side of the House.