Environment committee  The biggest thing that always seems to come up here is that there is some kind of compensation formula for landowners for these habitat preservation values that they have on their land. When we set up agreements with the landowners, and it's large tracts of land out there, it's p

Environment committee  What would help is a regulatory body that would look at particular properties and activities and assess the greatest value that the particular site or landscape could offer. There have been notable increases in ecological values, and if we could get those values brought up higher

Environment committee  For myself, I would say that the greatest barrier is the competing interests. When we have agriculture and oil and gas activities requiring an expanded land base to carry on and to expand their businesses per se, the dollars that support those things far outweigh the dollars that

Environment committee  I'll talk about one project specifically that has benefited from this. As you know in southern Alberta we have a lot of water bodies that are created due to the irrigation that's done there. We have a lot of reservoirs down there, and there's never been any attention paid to the

Environment committee  Yes. Of course we have representation on there as well. I attended the first meeting of HAAP a few years ago. My comments would be around wildlife being managed provincially. A lot of times we get tunnel vision with regard to our province, but we have to realize that it extends

Environment committee  I would certainly concur with the comments that Mr. Crabbe made, in that we're seeing wildlife species expand the habitat or the territory they inhabit, especially the species that are more mobile, such as the moose and the elk. We have significant populations of elk out on the p

Environment committee  No, we don't, not specifically.

Environment committee  Thank you. That is correct. Species adapt to their conditions and are fairly fluid. In drought conditions, particularly with regard to the properties we look after under the wildlife trust fund and the operation grassland community program, we try to minimize the effects by mana

Environment committee  Yes, we are. The way we're able to access some of that is more with regard to the penalties claimed through the courts. If those emissions have been excessive, or if there have been spills and penalties have been assessed, those funds go back directly into habitat enhancement pro

Environment committee  Yes. The one additional comment I'd like to make is with regard to the increased activities among women and youth, not only in hunting but in the shooting sports. Many of our clubs throughout the province that have shooting ranges are finding a really high uptake of these demogra

Environment committee  Take our wildlife trust fund. When we raise funds to purchase deeded lands within the province, we source all the granting opportunities we can. This is one opportunity for us to access those funds so that we can set aside different properties throughout the province in perpetuit

Environment committee  I don't have exact data on that. However, the majority of the hunting in areas where baiting is allowed is from the outfitters, so that would be from non-residents coming into Alberta to hunt black bears. Alberta is a very popular destination for that. The outfitters would have b

Environment committee  The woodland caribou is vitally important. We've been supporting and endorsing all conservation activities for woodland caribou and advocating on the preservation of the habitat for the woodland caribou. They need large tracts of undisturbed land to survive and thrive, and with t

Environment committee  Unfortunately the areas that these caribou inhabit are crown lands. They're all in public lands so we're unable to go in and acquire the land by purchase in order to inhibit some of these activities. I think it would take somewhat of a miracle to establish a framework that would

Environment committee  Many people eat the meat. In fact, I know many people who prefer bear meat. A lot of that meat is consumed.