Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to speak this evening to my colleague's Motion No. 15. Before going any further, I want to address the many inaccuracies and falsehoods uttered by the member for Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies. In fact, I do not believe that a single thing he said in his speech would stand up to fact-checking, but I will come back to that.
I want to start by talking about where we began. When the Liberal government was elected in 2015, Canada was not protecting even 1% of its coastal areas and oceans, which are necessary, especially for our essential fishing sector. Today, nearly 16% of our marine areas and 14% of our land areas are protected, all within the past 10 years. How did we get there? One way was to make historic investments of almost $16 billion in a host of conservation initiatives that my colleague across the way seems utterly unable to comprehend.
I am going to give a few examples of the falsehoods he mentioned earlier. He said we were putting up a glass cage, a fence around these areas. Take for example the Saguenay–St. Lawrence Marine Park, an area co-managed by the federal government and the Government of Quebec. There is endless fishing in that park. There is commercial shipping and tourism in that area. There are plenty of commercial activities, but all of that is done first and foremost with conservation in mind. When my colleague across the way says that we are going to put a glass dome and a fence around all of that, he clearly does not know what he is talking about.
We have invested $16 billion over the past 10 years. Of course, we heard the Prime Minister and some of my colleagues announce a historic investment of nearly $4 billion a few weeks ago, as part of the strategy called “A Force of Nature: Canada's Strategy to Protect Nature”. I would like to take a moment to talk a bit about what this means and what we have done so far. We have committed to creating new national parks. Last summer saw record visitor numbers. When my colleague says that this is preventing Canadians from accessing nature, that is completely false, once again, because last summer, record numbers of people visited our national parks.
More and more Canadians want access to green spaces and to natural environments in Canada that are protected from unchecked industrial development. That is exactly what we are doing. We are creating conservation areas, and we plan to create 15 new national urban parks. We have already created Rouge National Urban Park near Toronto. People can take a train from downtown Toronto to Rouge National Urban Park, which is one of the most visited national parks in the country.
Evidently, what we have done so far also stems from the targets we agreed on at COP15 in Montreal in 2022. Allow me to quickly remind my colleagues what COP is. It is the Conference of the Parties, and it grew out of the 1992 Rio summit, where countries made commitments jointly, willingly and in an informed manner to tackle desertification, conservation and biodiversity, and climate change. At the COP in Montreal, which took place in a difficult international political context, in a geopolitical situation that challenged us all, 194 countries jointly committed to protecting 30% of our lands and oceans by 2030. My colleague opposite says there is a 2050 target, and I would really like him to show me where that target is. I have been working on these issues for decades and I have never seen a 2050 target for Canada. I am sorry, but he is making up things that just do not exist.
Experts have described this conference as an historic agreement, with some even going so far as to call it a “bet on nature.” For us, of course, conservation is extremely important, but it is also something we must do in partnership with local communities. This is work that Parks Canada has been doing in an exemplary manner for many decades. One need only look at what is happening in Banff National Park or Jasper National Park to see very concrete examples. For us, it is also a way of working toward reconciliation.
My colleague, the member for Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, mentioned the Northwest Territories as an example. I worked on this project along with 23 indigenous nations of the Northwest Territories in unanimous agreement. It was the first time in history this had happened. The Government of the Northwest Territories, the federal government and partners in Canada and around the world worked together to create this new conservation area, which, to the best of our knowledge, is set to be the largest indigenous-led protected area in the world, covering roughly one million square kilometres.
That is how we are going to get there. I had the privilege of leading the creation of the first national park where everything, from start to finish, was done with indigenous peoples. I am referring to Pituamkek park in Prince Edward Island. This was the first time in our nation's history that we created a new national park in partnership with indigenous communities. In fact, they were the ones who approached us. Members of the Mi'kmaq community told us that they wanted this highly iconic and symbolic portion of their territory to be protected. They wanted to turn it into a national park, first of all to ensure that it was properly protected and conserved, but secondly, so that Canadians could go there and discover a part of their heritage and history.
This brings me to the ecological gifts program, which directly contributes to the Government of Canada's land protection objectives. It is important to understand where the 30% figure comes from. Did we pull that number out of thin air, as some seemed to suggest? Of course not. It is important to look at the science. Numerous scientific reports have been produced that show us how to protect biodiversity. In case the Conservatives have forgotten, human beings are animals who need clean air and clean water to survive. We cannot live without those things, and we need a healthy terrestrial ecosystem. However, to achieve this, we need to protect at least 30% of our land and oceans, which is why we have set this target. It is not a ceiling, but rather a floor. That is where we need to start.
The ecological gifts program plays a very important role because it enables conservation efforts on private land. In fact, the Conservative Party member did not once mention that the ecological gifts program relies on private landowners who commit to these projects entirely on a voluntary basis. These projects are essential pillars for achieving our goals. They help protect natural habitats on private land: forests, wetlands, and farmland. Some say that the land needs to stay completely untouched, but the program includes farmland. We are talking about voluntary conservation, and it is essential across the country.
I would like to share a few examples of the benefits of this program. Since 1995, more than 2,000 ecological gifts have been made. This amounts to over $1.3 billion in donations and more than 252,000 hectares of permanently protected land, nearly half of Prince Edward Island. There are challenges associated with this program, and I believe the government can take steps to improve it, particularly with regard to ensuring tax parity between different types of donations, whether in-kind or monetary.
In closing, protecting our precious natural environment is a necessity for our health, in terms of the water and air we need to live, but it is also our greatest ally in the fight against climate change and a celebration of Canadian identity.
