Environment committee  I would only say that the program has been consistently oversubscribed. I gave you some numbers in my opening remarks....

Environment committee  Since 2009, and again the program has had different levels of funding throughout those years, so I would say it fluctuates, but it could be up to 2.5 times oversubscribed. On average, that's what we've seen. Right now, at the $10-million level, we receive maybe under $20 million in proposals, so there are great needs out there.

Environment committee  Again, the investment of $3.6 billion will help us tremendously to do that, and we'll continue. Again, it's an ongoing thing. As I mentioned, we have ongoing assessments of our cultural resources, and then we continue investing over time. This investment is not going to be the end of it.

Environment committee  I don't think we have this information right now. We are currently conducting some kind of an assessment, trying to understand the impact of climate change on the conservation of our cultural resources. We are just in the early days of doing that, so I wouldn't have a percentage per se that would be impacted directly.

Environment committee  No, absolutely not. There are a number of mitigation measures that we put in place, and there are several ways to do this. We could build structures in order to better support the structure. We could go all the way up to moving the structure, but losing the building is the last resort.

Environment committee  These are the choices that we have to make. As we assess all of our sites, we have to make these choices.

Environment committee  Yes. As you know, there is an MOU from 1997, where Britain has agreed that they would be transferring the wrecks and the contents of the wrecks to Canada should they be found. Negotiations are under way in order to honour this MOU.

Environment committee  Briefly, yes, we have started engaging with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, for instance, specifically on call to action 79(iii), the aspects of commemorating the legacy of residential schools. We're looking at how we're going to be implementing that. There's also, as you know, under 79, the appointment of members to the board—indigenous members, Métis, first nations, and Inuit.

Environment committee  The approaches are sometimes very limited as to the marketing of events at our sites. We accept donations, for instance, but this doesn't really fit the Parks Canada mandate.

Environment committee  There may be a couple of nuances. Parks Canada is responsible for the conservation and maintenance of the national historic sites that it owns and administers. Other federal departments also own and administer their sites, so they are responsible for the preservation and maintenance of those as well.

Environment committee  Then it is up to the department that owns that particular site to decide on its own investment in and maintenance of that site. At Parks Canada, we have reporting mechanisms. We have ongoing assessment of our sites, including the assessment of the state of cultural resources in those sites, and we report that regularly.

Environment committee  Parks Canada has a lot of tools that enable it to help the various owners to conserve and preserve their sites. As for funding for owners who are not part of the federal family, the only way we can currently provide them with financial aid is through the Parks Canada national cost-sharing program for heritage places.

Environment committee  No, there is no particular focus on rural versus urban. The applications are all looked at on their merit. There is, though, a new.... As part of the expanded program, we are looking at assistance in order to prepare submissions, so that's something the proponents can request. Once we are involved, we offer lots of guidance and assistance.

Environment committee  At Parks, as you can appreciate, our sites are spread across the country and often associated with national parks, which tend to be not so much in urban centres, so we do not necessarily look at it through this lens, but we certainly would not do anything that would favour one over the other, or offer preferential treatment to one or the other.

Environment committee  Thank you for your question. Obviously, this depends on the scope of the proposed legislation. First of all, we might think of legislation that would preserve national historic sites protected by and belonging to the federal government. As Mr. Alway said, the property rights make it impossible to legislate beyond that.