Environment committee  Yes, I can respond to that. As an organization, CPAWS is opposed to any oil and gas activity occurring on Sable Island or in any national park. On the specific issue of precedent, that's a bit different, because it has to do with the stacking of the two pieces of legislation,

Environment committee  Yes, I can respond to that. From our perspective, Sable Island is this incredibly sensitive ecosystem. It's a sand island located a couple of hundred kilometres off the coast of Nova Scotia in the rough North Atlantic. It's a sensitive ecosystem, so the potential for impacts occ

Environment committee  The horses have been on Sable Island for hundreds of years. It's not possible to separate the horses from Sable Island. The two go hand in hand. We don't view that as a threat to the ecological integrity. We view the horses as part of the Sable Island ecosystem.

Environment committee  CPAWS' approach on the issue of visitation, and what we have been encouraging Parks Canada to do, is to bring the Sable Island experience to people, and not people to Sable Island. It's a remote piece of geography and it's very difficult to get to. It's very sensitive.The overwhe

Environment committee  There is not a specific number that we would suggest. We just don't have the first-hand experience at that site in the marine environment to make that recommendation. What we can say is that the concept of developing buffer zones around national parks is something that CPAWS prom

Environment committee  Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. My name is Chris Miller. I'm the national conservation biologist with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, based in Halifax. I've worked on protected area issues in Nova Scotia for about 20 years. This work has included a lo

Environment committee  Thank you. Because Sable Island is a fairly new national park, the legislation that created it is only a few years old; it was from 2013. Predating that was the Offshore Petroleum Resources Accord Implementation Act, which guides the exploration of oil and gas off the coasts of

Environment committee  There's oil and gas exploration going on all around Sable Island, but not on Sable Island. In the past, there had been a number of wells that had been drilled on the island.

Environment committee  With regard to marine protected areas, an important interim step is the closures that Anna mentioned. That's a fairly quick way the government can act to ensure that the integrity of a particular site is maintained while the more lengthy process of marine protected area establish

Environment committee  Very quickly, Sable Island is a very special place for Nova Scotians. It's a sliver of sand in the ocean that Nova Scotians care very deeply about. I think most Nova Scotians want to protect it, and for the most part want it to be left alone. That said, all around Sable Island

Environment committee  Thank you for the question. Since we're discussing protected areas in Atlantic Canada, and that's what I'm most familiar with, maybe I'll start with that. I think there would be tremendous public support for ensuring that the Sable Island site is fully protected. I know it cou

Environment committee  I'm not sure if it's proceeding, but there's been a clear ruling from UNESCO that that needs to take place. Certainly coming up with a plan to actually establish an effective buffer zone is something that the federal government could do in collaboration with the Newfoundland and

Environment committee  I think the EGSPA legislation is somewhat unique in that it sets a whole bunch of targets and timelines for a lot of different environmental issues at the same time. It covers everything from greenhouse gas emissions to water quality to protected areas. That is a unique element o

Environment committee  Birch Cove Lakes is a fantastic area of Halifax. It's about five kilometres or so from the downtown area. There are more than a dozen wilderness lakes there. It's a place that's visited by all sorts of people from Halifax, Dartmouth, Bedford, and Sackville. People use it for recr

Environment committee  In my own experience here in Nova Scotia, when I was invited by the provincial government to participate in a small team of experts that selected areas, we were looking for high-quality sites. We weren't looking for sites that just avoided conflict; we were looking for ones that