moved:
That, in the opinion of this House, the government should recognize the first Sunday of June of each year as National Rivers Day.
Madam Speaker, I am pleased today to rise to speak to private member's Motion No. 382. I was pleased to take on the motion from my hon. colleague from Vancouver Quadra after he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice.
The idea for a national rivers day originated in British Columbia where on the last Sunday in September of each year B.C. Rivers Day is celebrated.
B.C. Rivers Day started in 1980 with a single clean-up event along the Thompson River involving about 40 people. While the event that year was small it was nonetheless a great success in terms of the amount of garbage and debris that the small group of dedicated people removed from the river and its banks. As a result of that effort the group decided to plan a few more events the following year.
Thus began the long journey of B.C. Rivers Day. It has now snowballed to a point where this year more than 100 events took place involving an estimated 45,000 people. It has become the largest river related event of its kind in North America. It has become popular for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the concern of British Columbians for the state of local waterways.
By demonstrating their strong support for B.C. Rivers Day British Columbians are poised to embrace a similar national celebration of our rivers as I believe all Canadians will.
B.C. Rivers Day attracts participation from recreational clubs, conservation organizations, community groups, schools and local governments. Almost 350 organizations were involved last year. Virtually every local government proclaimed it, as did the province itself.
Every year this diverse collection of groups hosts a variety of events across the province, events that celebrate the cultural, ecological, historical, aesthetic, spiritual and recreational importance of B.C. rivers to the people of that wonderful province. Most of these events involve volunteers who contribute their time and energy to make a positive difference to the health of B.C. rivers. Their activities also benefit the local communities that take part in the celebrations.
I will list some examples of activities that took place this year, activities such as river cleanups, art exhibitions, interpretive walks, workshops, tree plantings, canoe trips, readings, slide shows, educational paddles and the Whistler Fishtival.
In the midst of all this fun, important public education is taking place. While B.C. Rivers Day offers people the opportunity to get out and experience the province's spectacular river heritage, it also brings attention to the need for better river management. Some organizers view B.C. Rivers Day as a vehicle to raise awareness about the threats facing local rivers. Others use it as an opportunity to showcase success stories. Often these perspectives can be combined into one event.
The intent in establishing B.C. Rivers Day was to celebrate the province's river heritage and promote the natural, cultural and recreational values of its waterways.
The intent of national rivers day should be the same. Canada has a long and rich river heritage. A national rivers day would be a fitting way of commemorating it. I suspect that the same kind of support and enthusiasm we have seen in British Columbia will unfold across the country as national rivers day picks up steam in the years ahead.
I share with all Canadians a deep love and respect for our rivers. As members may recall, I helped bring Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to Ottawa last year to speak to members about his experiences with the U.S. organization Riverkeeper. The story of Riverkeeper's efforts to rehabilitate, protect and preserve a long list of rivers all over the United States has inspired people around the world including here in Canada.
I have had the honour of working with Mr. Daniel LeBlanc who was the first riverkeeper in Canada. Mr. LeBlanc and his associates have worked long and hard to improve the condition of the Petitcodiac River in New Brunswick. I hope recent announcements mean that progress is being made.
Closer to home, or at least to the House, Canada now has a riverkeeper for the Ottawa River.
Members may have seen the Canadian riverkeepers broadcast on the CPAC channel.
While the riverkeepers are relatively new, Canadians' awareness of and concern for our rivers is longstanding. I am sure all my colleagues in this place would agree that rivers have a tremendously important role in the history of Canada and always will. They connect us to both our past and our future. Hugh MacLennan wrote the following in 1961:
Incredible though it sounds, the canoe parties which used to leave Montreal in the late eighteenth century were able to paddle nearly all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Their portages were many and exhausting, yet few of them were longer than three miles.So it came about, thanks to the maze of lakes in the Shield, that Canadian waters would be used as an east-west lateral avenue from the St. Lawrence to the Pacific above the American border. That is why it is accurate to say that without the rivers, the early nation could never have survived. The plains and British Columbia would have been fatally severed from the older communities of the Canadian east.
Canada's rivers are Canada's veins, Canada's arteries, Canada's highways, Canada's stories, Canada's history. In fact, they are Canada.
I am sure most members would agree that increased public awareness of rivers and watersheds is a noble objective. We know there is great public interest and willingness in river and lake cleanups. In my riding of York North, for example, people in the community have exerted great efforts on helping to clean up Lake Simcoe and on river conservation projects.
A national rivers day would also increase the public profile of the Canadian heritage rivers system. Established in 1984, the Canadian heritage rivers system is a co-operative program developed and run by the federal, provincial and territorial governments.
The objectives of the program are to give national recognition to Canada's outstanding rivers and to ensure long term management and conservation of their natural, cultural, historical and recreational values. There are currently 38 rivers with a total length of more than 9,000 Kilometres on the Canadian heritage rivers system.
The Canadian heritage rivers system seeks to give national recognition to the important rivers of Canada and to ensure their future management in such a way that the natural and human heritage which they represent is conserved and interpreted, and the opportunities they possess for recreation and heritage appreciation are realized by residents of and visitors to Canada.
Through the board secretariat and working with other federal agencies, national co-operating and non-governmental organizations, Parks Canada publicly works hard at promoting the system as a national program, a national responsibility.
Canada's rivers are not only keys to the understanding of our country's natural and human history. Virtually all of the nation's fresh water eventually flows through rivers into five different salt water bodies: the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans, Hudson Bay and into the Gulf of Mexico. Our river system, thereby, cannot be separated from the larger bodies of water into which they flow.
A message was delivered by the Usher of the Black Rod as follows:
Madam Speaker, the Honourable Deputy to the Governor General desires the immediate attendance of this honourable House in the chamber of the honourable the Senate.
Accordingly, the Speaker with the House went up to the Senate chamber.
And being returned: