Environment committee  Some of the research we are doing here is to look at plants that have an amazing ability to take pollutants out of water. Those are either hyperaccumulators or hyperdegraders of different types of contaminants. But the type of work we do is basically applied research, working wit

Environment committee  They have various policies—

Environment committee  Actually, one of the main reasons why we put our own wetlands on the campus was to drought-proof our campus, because we know the benefit of the wetlands. In our own campus, for example, we don't even use municipal water or any type of water for use on the farm for irrigation. We

Environment committee  Thank you very much. We really have to know where we are with the baseline information, where we are for us to know if we have accomplished anything, whether in the area of conservation or in the area of water quality. Can you hear me?

Environment committee  A national wetland inventory, first of all, provides us with the baseline information of where we are. The second thing is that the inventory is not only going to be the number of wetlands we have, but the types of wetlands. Therefore, over time, if there is going to be any chan

Environment committee  Thank you.

Environment committee  One of the things we have to do on a national basis is to be able to monitor what is happening in the wetlands. We have to develop a wetland monitoring process nationwide.

Environment committee  Currently we don't even have the details on any of the wetland functionality parameters across the country. I can go onto the Environment Canada website and get information on what the temperature is in Nunavut, or everything on what is happening in the Yukon. For our wetlands,

Environment committee  Yes, this is one of the areas that we are researching here, looking at the use of wetlands for treatment of grey water or polluted stormwater, in terms of increasing water quality so that it can be used for something else. Fortunately, we already have four municipalities that are

Environment committee  Thank you very much, Honourable Pilon. Yes, our expectations have been on track. When you were here last year, it was under construction; it has been finished since then. We have acquired all the infrastructure that we require for our research activities and for monitoring. We

Environment committee  Yes, sir, in the last little while, since your last visit, we have been working with different municipalities. Currently we are working with eight municipalities in...[Technical difficulty—Editor]...to use the same type of technology as was presented by colleagues from Ducks Unli

Environment committee  I believe the federal government should play a leadership role, not just in wetlands, but in areas of environment, when it comes to environmental conservation and development. In this particular case, definitely, yes, I would suggest that similar research facilities be developed

Environment committee  We need to protect our—

Environment committee  We have to protect our wetlands and protect aquatic ecosystems from quality degradation and quantitative depletion. We need to adopt a watershed approach in wetland management in this country so that wetland replacement and mitigation are within the same watershed of loss, not ju

Environment committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and members of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development. It is really my pleasure to be here today, and I count it a privilege to be invited, along with others, to be a witness at this committee. It w