Environment committee  As I mentioned in my remarks, I would take an entirely different approach. Just as we need an ecosystem approach to development and approvals in the country, we need an ecosystem approach to how we organize government on this question. If we're going to have a national conservation plan, then we need to rejig the institutional framework we have within government.

Environment committee  I wouldn't put the emphasis there, really, because when we think of conservation in a policy sense, we are stuck with two things: creating protected lands and trying to protect endangered species to keep them from going extinct. We need new thinking around public policy about how to maintain the health and integrity of ecosystems and restore those that we've already damaged.

Environment committee  It's quite worrisome, the decline of support for science in the federal government. The examples are multiplying. One of them relates to this. I guess in the current budget, funds for future work—not the work that's in the hopper now, as there are a couple more years worth of work on this, but funds for future work, about how in the future we will be able to do this kind of evaluation and synthesis of the health of our ecosystems--were not provided, though they were requested.

Environment committee  If I understand you correctly, that's the point of this approach to legislation: that it provides a holistic approach enshrined in law. It's not prescriptive, but it provides a legal framework within which government can do its business, to reflect the fact that in reality we are embedded in nature and our economy is embedded in nature.

Environment committee  Thank you, Mr. Choquette. That is a long question. It is better for me to answer in English. If I understand your question, I raised the Aichi targets because I think they provide some guidance for the priorities that should be in a national conservation plan. Already work has been done on them by the federal and provincial governments to adapt them to the reality across Canada for each province.

Environment committee  We have a new act, of course. Existing legislation doesn't provide us with a comprehensive approach to protecting and conserving ecosystems and providing for sustainable use. That's why a number of times you have heard the examples of Australia and Norway proposed: they're the only countries we know of that have omnibus legislation to provide an overarching framework, a kind of legal umbrella within which government decision making gets done with respect to development decisions and so on.

Environment committee  I can clarify, if that's acceptable, Mr. Chair.

Environment committee  In this document, “Canadian Biodiversity: Ecosystems Status and Trends 2010”, the committee was holding a hearing on invasive species. I was going to appear at the hearing, but it got cancelled. Anyway, I sent this in English and French to the clerk. It would probably have been in a box for that set of hearings, so maybe what I sent could be mined out and distributed.

Environment committee  Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for coming to the Maritimes. Yesterday I was telling my daughter Laura, who's 13, that I was coming to Halifax, because she always complains that I tell her at the last minute when I'm going away. She said, "What for?" I said, "To speak to members of Parliament."

Natural Resources committee  Well, we're actually just undertaking a review now of regulation in the U.S. There are three states that have developed some pretty impressive regulation on different aspects of this that we're looking at, that we want to be able to bring forward to regulators in our province and share with others across the country.

Natural Resources committee  I can clarify a little bit. That has been our position, but because of the lack of progress--even on having the province establish a trigger under environmental assessment regulation to capture this kind of exploration in hydro-fracking--our board passed a resolution two weeks ago or so to instruct staff to work towards a moratorium until we get our ducks lined up well.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Harris. Yes, absolutely. As in Quebec, the areas being drilled and explored now are very similar to those in the St. Lawrence lowlands. You pretty well can't throw a stone in New Brunswick without hitting someone's house. We have agricultural areas and areas that are full of woodlots and communities.

Natural Resources committee  Well, sure. Under CEAA now, it's a well-established approach that there's the potential for intervenor funding under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. That principle should be in place for this kind of an inquiry, so you can bring expert evidence forward. Not too long ago, we were intervenors on a proposal to build a large new oil refinery in Saint John, around the marine side of the proposal or the harbour they were going to build.

Natural Resources committee  Stephanie actually works directly with the coalition, so I'll ask her to respond.

Natural Resources committee  On the question of energy security, how is this gas going to be used if it gets developed? Will it benefit New Brunswickers, will it benefit Canadians, or is it simply going to be shipped to the United States? That's an important issue, particularly given the risks here, and that needs to be addressed.