Environment committee  Yes, it is early. Mr. Chair and esteemed members of the committee, my name is Arne Mooers, and I am a professor of biodiversity at Simon Fraser University. I am also the chair of the Biodiversity and Conservation Committee at the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution , a le

Environment committee  Bonjour. I think you've heard about the most effective means for conserving land. You need regulation, you need buy-in, you need flexibility—you need all these things. As a biologist, I think you have to measure the outcome and you need to have a backstop of regulation. Those

Environment committee  I think my opening statement was quite clear, that without the effective implementation of endangered species legislation, SARA, we will not achieve the goal your committee has set, which is to meet CBD targets, Aichi targets that show proper stewardship of biodiversity.

Environment committee  I would answer that it's too early to tell whether SARA would need any new provisions. It must be fully implemented first on the ground, for probably a decade or so, and then we can evaluate what might be required.

Environment committee  No, Mr. Chair, but I could offer some names for a small committee that could come up with a design that might be useful.

Environment committee  I just need some clarification—a study for what exactly?

Environment committee  The previous question referred to comparing different stewardship approaches to conservation, is that correct?

Environment committee  I could get my research assistant to do a literature search this morning if that would be helpful. I don't know of any particular studies.

Environment committee  I think the committee is well aware that critical habitat designations under SARA are well behind schedule. I believe there are only seven action plans in place, given that there are over 300 federally listed species. I think we have to give the implementation with respect to the

Environment committee  That's a fairly difficult question because you have to count backwards through all the timelines, but there should be hundreds.

Environment committee  Literally hundreds, yes.

Environment committee  Good morning. Climate change is the single largest threat to Canada's well-being over the medium term—I'd like to state that absolutely unequivocally. It also makes this deliberation and a national conservation plan very difficult, because we have to plan for the future. It's a

Environment committee  That's a very interesting question. I think if there's a single species at risk, most of the time it points to there being something wrong with the habitat in which it lives. I think the idea of concentrating at the policy level on areas where there are many species at risk is no

Environment committee  You are well aware that there can be conflicts, and those have to be mediated. But we must bear in mind that those species would not be at risk, these two competing species, if we had managed the landscape properly to begin with. What I think is lost in some of these discussions

Environment committee  Yes, we are aware of these perceived conflicts between particular species and ourselves. We've seen that with bison, we've seen it with grizzly bears, and we've seen it with cougars on the east coast. We know the story.