Environment committee  Sure, it's Shell. They work in the oil sands. They work—

Environment committee  No.

Environment committee  Yes, I would say so. Overall the whole agriculture sector and the development sector are far more aware of their environmental responsibility and impact. I would say yes, overall there's a growing awareness and greater engagement.

Environment committee  I'm a farmer myself, also. In the agricultural communities I operate in and work with, there's quite an element of partnership and a long history of partnering with all governments and all kinds of agricultural programs. If there's a well-developed program that has a good scienti

Environment committee  Yes, that's another one of the significant ecological benefits of wetlands. We've studied that in Ontario as well as in the watershed around Lake Winnipeg. We have the data that frames just how much nutrient is going in because of the loss of wetlands.

Environment committee  Yes, and we'll make a point to make it all available to the committee. It's excellent science. Yes, it's been provided, and it all goes into this machine of policy development.

Environment committee  I would have to say yes, for sure. A great piece of research, which I'll also dig out, done by the University of Saskatchewan, identified the impact of wetland drainage and the additive nature that it contributed to that flooding. What really drives it home is when you see the we

Environment committee  Most of that work in the Lake of the Woods watershed would be in Minnesota, I believe. I can find out if our sister organization in the U.S. is involved in that.

Environment committee  If government is not involved, no. That program is a very strong partnership between government, the private sector, and conservation organizations, which are also part of the private sector.

Environment committee  Because the bulk of the funding that's provided through it is through challenge grants. It's legislation in Congress in the United States that makes it available. That is publicly funded money from the U.S. government. The Government of Canada has to be involved in managing the w

Environment committee  Sure. Irving Oil is a significant energy company based in New Brunswick, right there in Saint John. They have a very large refinery. I believe it processes 300,000 barrels a day. It's a significant refinery. As you go into the refinery, there's a beautiful restored wetland ther

Environment committee  Organizations are all different. There's the scale. You have the Ecology Action Centre in Nova Scotia, while we're a very large not-for-profit so we have a brand that's very visible, and that creates a different value proposition for a corporation to come to us. We wish there w

Environment committee  As has been mentioned here, there are carrots and sticks in this area, and you need both. A foundation of legislation is the first step. You have to have a threshold. After that, you need to create these challenge grants and fund resources like that, so that when the government v

Environment committee  Oh, indeed. Let's put more resources into the wetland conservation fund and other pools there, because there's demand out here and partnerships to utilize it and to have real, meaningful, long-term, on-the-ground impact.

Environment committee  We've done some research on the economics of our specific projects and we'll provide it to the committee. There's not just an ecological outcome but also an economic impact.