Environment committee  Good afternoon. My name is Rick Bates and I'm with the Canadian Wildlife Federation. David Browne, our director of conservation, is also here. I'd like to thank the committee for the opportunity to offer comments. First I'd like to commend the government for taking the opportun

Environment committee  A working landscape, the way we think of it, is typically southern Canada, where it's more populated and more developed, with more roads, more fragmentation of habitat, and more development. Why it's important is that there are many species, particularly species at risk, in many

Environment committee  I think the biggest one is rewarding individual Canadians for the good conservation work they do. Right now, we as a society talk a lot about the need for stewardship and the importance of stewardship, but it comes down to the individual making choices to benefit all of society.

Environment committee  I think the sweet spot is good conversation, where we aren't polarized and either completely opposed to development or completely in favour of all development. It means getting to a spot where we can have a rational conversation among Canadians around the pros and cons, where t

Environment committee  I think one thing that is often overlooked in our conversation around landscapes and regions.... To be sure, habitat is critical, but one of the things we'd like to ensure doesn't get lost in that perspective is individual species. We have many individual species at risk, more th

Environment committee  There are a number of things with connecting Canadians to nature. One is, of course, improving that level of conversation we have around development and conservation, so that we're speaking clearly and understanding clearly that there are trade-offs we need to make. When you're d

Environment committee  Well, there are several. It costs a lot of money and it typically isn't ecosystem-based. You can spend a lot of time and money on one species while the entire system around you collapses. So it's certainly a risk. I think a person has to head into either approach, either an eco

Environment committee  I think the key is balance. You can be spending so much time looking at the system that you begin to lose species. When you lose a couple of key species, you can quickly lose a system. So through a balanced approach I think you can retain both. You can spend some time on the mo

Environment committee  I think it's helpful, yes, absolutely, for a long-term ethic around conservation in society, particularly among new Canadians. We have many new Canadians who don't get an opportunity to be exposed to nature in the same way that people who grew up here have. So I think it's helpf

Environment committee  Yes.

Environment committee  Yes.

Environment committee  Yes.

Environment committee  Yes. I think those are clearly no-lose recommendations. There's an opportunity to benefit all by taking that kind of an approach.

Environment committee  I'm not completely familiar with all the work they've done, but in principle, yes, I think the round table has done some excellent work.

Environment committee  Yes, I think it would be very helpful to have clear recommendations and targets for marine-managed areas or protected areas, whatever term we like to use, identifying the most important areas for wildlife in the ocean and being clear about our intentions.