Environment committee  I will come back to that in a moment, but I wanted to emphasize that this brief is really well done. I wanted to start by addressing the issue of climate change. We in the NDP believe that we must act quickly on climate change, establish specific measures, develop an overall vision and be very active on the issue. We believe the present government is not doing enough work in this area.

Environment committee  If peat bogs dry up, they will release 25 times as much fossil fuel carbon as is released every year, which will have a major impact on climate change. To summarize, we absolutely believe that action must be taken to strengthen the legislative framework and to ensure that wetlands are taken into consideration before projects are undertaken.

Environment committee  The ecosystems in Canada are on the receiving end of all the other environmental problems we face: climate change, pollution, and invasive species. So a lot of this is just the immensity of the task. I was reminded of an analogy one of my predecessors once used. He said this is like trying to go up the down escalator.

Environment committee  Thank you very much. Earlier on we were speaking off the record, about the importance of preventing climate change and about the much greater role that the federal government should be playing. We're speaking about conservation, but we're also speaking about the impact of climate change on habitats, for example drought and the melting of glaciers.

Environment committee  In your consultations on habitat protection, are there some that focused specifically on climate change? It could be on the mitigation of climate change or the fight against climate change in relation with changes in the ecosystem. What do you expect from those groups? What are their positions on the impact of climate change?

Environment committee  I think there is good news, both in our sector-by-sector approach and in the cooperation of industry, again ensuring that we continue in the still fragile economic recovery in terms of some global uncertainty but at the same time we do our part to address climate change.

Environment committee  I wonder if you could tell us what investments the government has made and is making in relation to climate change adaptation.

Environment committee  As the government makes clear at every occasion, we are trying to balance our activity both in mitigation as well as in adaptation to ensure that we not only protect the environment and work towards greater environmental sustainability, but at the same time protect what is still a very fragile economic recovery. Environment Canada is essentially a regulatory department. With regard to climate change regulation, as each set of regulations is completed, we do a cost-benefit analysis to look at exactly the achievable mitigation outcomes as well as the benefits to health, to the economy, and of course to climate change mitigation.

Environment committee  One of the issues that has been coming up in one of the studies we're looking at is the effect of climate change on habitat conservation. We've been talking quite a bit about changing landscapes, etc. This is something the government is concerned about. You started to speak to the fact that the FSDS has mitigating climate change as one of its goals.

Environment committee  We've expanded the scope of federal actions to include new targets and implementation strategies on climate change adaptation. Great progress has been made in strengthening existing targets, particularly in terms of nutrient loading in the Great Lakes, Lake Simcoe, and Lake Winnipeg, and with actions in regard to marine pollution.

Environment committee  To my colleague's point, certainly looking at the methodology on habitat conservation best practices in the context of climate change would be an appropriate line of questioning. But I believe his question was specifically to the economic impact of climate change, which I think is outside of scope.

Environment committee  There's stuff that's important for us to do in the mill sites as well, to both mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Environment committee  Chair, I don't think you quite understood my question for the witnesses. Let me reword it. How is the fight against climate change important for habitat conservation and for your companies' productivity? Of course, you are also concerned about productivity. In that respect, the fight against climate change is crucial.

Environment committee  However, the cumulative benefits of these programs extend well beyond conserving and restoring habitat for at-risk wildlife. They also serve to support climate change initiatives through natural sequestration of carbon dioxide and to strengthen the resiliency of woodland ecosystems to withstand the effects of climate change. Another off-site initiative that we are very proud of is our sponsorship of Earth Rangers projects to bring back the wild American badger and the spotted turtle.

Environment committee  I would like to continue talking about the importance of wetlands in the fight against climate change. My colleague Ms. Quach also mentioned that wetlands are environmental goods and services and that they allow us to better adapt to climate change, which is a scourge right now. In my view and according to the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy and the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, the Conservatives have not done enough to address this problem and will unfortunately not meet their target for 2020.