Mr. Speaker, a few weeks ago, I asked a question of the Minister of Environment about the funding of the Lake St. Francis National Wildlife Area, among other things.
At the end of May, I went to the Valleyfield area; at Lake St. Francis, there is a national wildlife area that is managed by the Friends of the Valleyfield Wildlife Area. They reminded me of one thing: back in 1978, the Canadian Wildlife Service had acquired 14,000 hectares of land to use as a national wildlife area.
Under international conventions, this wildlife area is considered a Ramsar area, with an ecosystem of international importance. There are many plant species, several species at risk. But the Friends of the Wildlife Area have been suffering from a chronic lack of funding for several years.
Indeed, the whole management of the Lake St. Francis National Wildlife Area has been left to volunteers. The federal government is not taking its responsibilities as the protector of threatened species on its lands. It acquires 14,000 hectares of land, but refuses to take responsibility for supervision, coordination, promotion and development.
As an example, for the Lake St. Francis National Wildlife Area, 24.8% of the funding came from the Canadian Wildlife Service in 1997-1998. In 2002-2003, it will be only 9%. Clearly, the $12,000 available for the reserve will not be enough to ensure adequate funding to protect our natural heritage.
There are limits to having everything done by volunteers. These people put in a lot of time and energy, but they do not have to assume the federal government's role with regard to the management of its national wildlife areas.
I remind members that the mandate of national wildlife areas is essentially to protect wildlife and not to organize recreational activities to increase revenues.
Funding for national wildlife areas has to be increased. I humbly say so because, in 2001, the environment commissioner's report was very negative on the issue of national reserve management.
In 1999 and 2000, the budget was $83,000 in Ontario for ten national reserves; in Quebec, it was $102,000 for eight reserves. It is clear that there is a chronic lack of funding.
I will come back later to the statements made by the environment commissioner, who believes that the current resources allocated to national wildlife areas, particularly the Lake St. Francis reserve, are insufficient to enable them to fulfill their mandate.