Environment committee  Along with that, I might add that we already did a protected area study, and we had several people before us who suggested we should be protecting 50% of our boreal forests moving forwards. If that becomes part of the conversation, that would be interesting.

Environment committee  I would love to offer my six minutes to Mr. Lake.

Environment committee  You said you provide funding through provinces to do this. Could you, therefore, you put in some requirements in terms of benefiting local growers when you're handing out money to the provinces?

Environment committee  All right. Turning to forestry, my colleague Richard Cannings from South Okanagan—West Kootenay has a bill before the Senate as well, Bill C-354 on the use of wood. It's asking government to do an analysis of the carbon footprints of structural materials. His initial emphasis, of course, was wood and supporting the various mills in our ridings.

Environment committee  I want to turn to the Paris targets and forestry again. What do you see as the role of forests in terms of meeting Canada's Paris targets? I understand there might have been some changes in what's going to count and not count towards meeting that target. Could you address that for a minute, please?

Environment committee  Thank you. I am going to pass my six minutes back to Mr. Lake in a minute. Thank you for being here today. My first question will be for Agriculture. I have a bill, which is in the Senate, Bill C-281, to celebrate national local food day on the Friday before Thanksgiving every year.

Environment committee  No. I just want to speak in favour of having the minister here as well.

Environment committee  I'm just wondering why we're keeping the witnesses here through this discussion.

Environment committee  What does that actually look like?

Environment committee  Again, thank you for being here. I want to start with the $24.9 million that is being sought by various departments and agencies “to strengthen internal capacity to address human resources and pay administration issues”. Is a lot of that specifically aimed at trying to cure some of the problems with the Phoenix pay system?

Environment committee  Phoenix certainly was a disaster. I know that staff would appreciate any assistance you can offer in trying to resolve that in the long term. On the $1.3 billion, I believe that's the $1.3 billion that a number of us advocated for and signed a letter to the finance minister on, which I think is very necessary.

Environment committee  There's nothing in the supplementary estimates, at least nothing that was spoken to directly.

Environment committee  When I saw the government advertising programs, I had some of the same questions and issues. Whenever you're heading into an election year, of course, there is a little bit of cynicism that comes with government advertising dollars. The only advertising dollars you have are the $1.4 million that you referenced to promote the nature legacy campaign, at least in the supplementary estimates.

Environment committee  Thank you. My riding is Kootenay—Columbia, in southeastern B.C., but I was born in Churchill, Manitoba. The midwife was a polar bear. I lived in Chesterfield Inlet, which is about 500 kilometres north of Churchill, and so the Arctic is still near and dear to my heart. According to the IPCC special report, it's likely that with 2°C of warming, the Arctic Ocean will be completely free of sea ice on average once every 10 years, and with 1.5°C of warming the Arctic Ocean will be completely free of sea ice on average once every 100 years.

Environment committee  Being from British Columbia, of course, we have what we hope is not a new reality. I live in an area that people come to from all over the world to see: the Rocky Mountains and the Purcells and the Selkirks. By mid-summer, you can't see any of them because of the forest fires. It is estimated that over 200 megatonnes of CO2 are put into the atmosphere as a result of these fires.