Environment committee  Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to be with the committee this morning on this particular subject matter. We've prepared a presentation. I wonder whether it has been circulated.

Environment committee  I'll jump into it anyway. In my presentation I will spend a few minutes speaking about why we should care about invasive alien species; provide an overview of a national strategy, an invasive alien species strategy for Canada that was developed a few years ago; and then speak a

Environment committee  Absolutely. You can also follow up with the clerk afterwards. It's called the Wild Species 2010 report.

Environment committee  No, I referred to it. I wanted to reference for the committee the source documents.

Environment committee  I'm on page 3.

Environment committee  Thank you. I've mentioned already the economic, environmental, and social impact, and we have a few statistics or factors mentioned on slide 3 as well. There is no actual systematic assessment of the economic impact of invasive alien species in Canada. Even for the existing inve

Environment committee  I could probably make my presentation with answers, but maybe I can show one more slide and quickly mention federal legislation. I'll stop at the next slide.

Environment committee  Thank you very much. The federal role is focused on prevention, as far as international and interprovincial trade and transport. The key statutes are managed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, with the exception of the Canada Shipping Act, which is Transport Canada. The wor

Environment committee  If the issue is change in natural distribution and the species is expanding its range, say from the United States into Canada, such as we're seeing now, they aren't considered alien. That's a part of the very natural change you alluded to that's happening in ecosystems. That's no

Environment committee  Yes, exactly.

Environment committee  And that can happen as well, although something like West Nile virus—I'm trying to recall its pathway of introduction, and it's escaping me at the moment—can happen naturally as well, the spread of disease.

Environment committee  This definition would be common not just in the United States but globally, more generally. Those are the core characteristics of how any country is defining invasive alien species.

Environment committee  I tend to focus more on the invasive. I could follow up by providing you with information on alien species that are not invasive.

Environment committee  Actually, the source for that information is a report from 2006 that we could make available to the committee. It assesses more than just the $20 billion in the forest sector. It also addresses some species harmful to the agriculture sector as well.

Environment committee  With respect to the Environment Canada role, we focus on the strategy and a funding program. The direct management is not something we do, and I would be deferring to federal colleagues, and perhaps on something like the giant bullfrog that might be more municipal and local actio