Mr. Speaker, the only comment I would make with respect to the increasing of the parks within Canada is a point that was raised earlier. If we do not resource these things properly, then it will be done poorly. Simply hitting a target may be fine and good, but we have heard stories in the past where ministers would look out of a plane's window and decide that there would be a park in a certain area. This caused a number of Canadians, particularly in the rural areas, because those are generally the areas we are talking about, to have some real negative feelings toward the creation of any parks.
I come from a rural area, a resource based area. There is still a cultural shift going on to recognize the potential economic benefits or the overall impacts of parks being created.
The only thing I would mention is that during the recent PSAC strike, members on the committee noted the number of communities that came forward and said, “Fix this strike because it is hurting us economically. When these heritage sites and parks are shut down, it really hurts our local economy”. It was striking to me just how important these parks had become to our local economies.