Environment committee  It's challenging. There are some examples of attempts, or I think programs and policies that support it. There are managed land and conservation land tax incentive programs in many provinces. Those are provided to farmers, rural landowners. If you retain these habitats on your

Environment committee  I can't separate the taxpayers from everybody, basically, except there's some age...like we don't start paying until we start consuming, but you know, it's all there if the marketplace is there, if there's recognition.... Carbon pricing is an example, and for water licensing and

Environment committee  Right.

Environment committee  That would be second only to maple syrup production.

Environment committee  Sorry. I have an old-growth maple forest.

Environment committee  I can in general. Grasslands sequester carbon by the nature of the fact that they exist. When they're converted to other uses, that carbon is released. In our conservation programs, generally for every one acre of wetlands that we secure, we get at least three acres of grassland.

Environment committee  There are a couple of things. If you want to go community supported, engaging producers and getting everyone on board, there is not a program that runs right across the whole prairie landscape. If we wanted to protect everything that's there, that becomes a regulatory approach

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.

Environment committee  That's one way to frame it. The producers and agriculturalists are trying to make a living, and they're accessing all the land they can to do that.

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  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