Environment committee  We used the word “sporadic” to indicate that there was no systematic monitoring, no monitoring at specific intervals. The department conducts its monitoring when staff is available at a site and when it is able to do so.

Environment committee  A number of protected areas have a full-time employee, but not every one.

Environment committee  What we lack is scientific information. There are several ways to do monitoring. Often, it is done by groups of dedicated citizens.

Environment committee  Mr. Chair, I want to be very clear on this point: we are quite concerned by the fact that Parks Canada has a backlog of work to do, but we're also extremely complimentary of what it's managed to do since the panel in 2000. We've been in nine parks. We've been on the ground. We'

Environment committee  Mr. Chair, I'm going to ask one of my colleagues. It's not an issue, frankly, that I've delved into extensively, so I'll ask my colleague.

Environment committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll ask my colleagues if they can speak to that specific issue. Again, it's not something I've personally been engaged in.

Environment committee  When we reply to petitions, we explain the government's activities to Canadians. From time to time, the government makes a commitment as the result of a petition. I will let Andrew comment.

Environment committee  Yes, indeed, we received only 12 petitions last year. Normally, we receive about 20 or 25 per year. We think that it is just a natural fluctuation in our system. Just like ecosystems, we have fluctuations too. There is no specific reason to explain the decrease in the number of p

Environment committee  We received only 12 petitions this year. The 86% response rate just indicates that one or two of them were late. I do not think it represents anything systemic in the government.

Environment committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. The math would be 30%. They've only assessed 60%, but it's reasonable to expect that if you find in that 60% there are 30% in decline, this is probably the case across the system. As for the particular numbers, I'm going to ask my colleague, Mr. Ferguson,

Environment committee  Mr. Chair, I'm quite certain that over the years I've heard different scientists argue for targets higher than 17% land and 10% marine. But for a specific answer to your question, I'll look quickly to my colleagues. Do we have a specific answer to that? Jim?

Environment committee  Yes, Chair, I would quite agree with that statement.

Environment committee  That's correct, Chair.

Environment committee  Petitions are very useful in our daily work at the Office of the Auditor General because they show us how important those issues are to Canadians. We often use petitions as sources of information to determine which performance audits to conduct.

Environment committee  We made a recommendation. I will explain a few things about that. We noted that, although Environment Canada held consultations to set Canada's targets for 2020 in compliance with the international convention, it had not yet defined the actions needed to achieve those targets. A