Fisheries committee  Yes. Thank you. I'd be pleased to do so. I know that a number of other conservation groups across the country have been collaborating as well. They have been working on proposed recommendations for legislative amendments, and have been actually talking already with the departmen

Fisheries committee  That's fine. I think the act can do both and does do both.

Fisheries committee  I have read the article and I think what it says is that every time a law is changed, it's a bonanza for lawyers. That's a fact of life. No matter when you change the law, it's a bonanza for lawyers. When the law was changed in 2012, it was a bonanza for lawyers, too. I think w

Fisheries committee  Sure. I think that the act won't have retroactive effect and there are new provisions for ecological restoration in areas that have been damaged by the cumulative effect of multiple small projects, so that is an improvement. Areas that are particularly sensitive could be designa

Fisheries committee  I think registering all the projects on this public registry would be an improvement. For example, if there was a code of practice for agricultural ditches, you could just register the fact that you had done work on your ditch. You could get credit if you restored habitat, and yo

Fisheries committee  Madam Chair, it's a pleasure to be here again. Thank you to the committee for the opportunity to present to you today. During the last election, you heard loud and clear that Canadians had lost faith in the revised system under the previous government to approve projects with

Fisheries committee  Sure. I think I'll take whale-watching as an economic activity. It is more valuable economically than hunting whales, and there are studies that show that. It's much more valuable to keep whales alive and to let people go to see them. It's an industry that's blossoming and bloo

Fisheries committee  Yes. For seals it's not an area that I'm really aware of, so I'll just agree with my colleague Stephen Woodley on this. Laws should be based on science—environmental law in particular. It's hard to answer that hypothetical without knowing the science involved 20 years from now.

Fisheries committee  Polling by WWF shows that a really high proportion of the public supports this strong protection. I think the numbers are in the 80% or 90%. The poll was from last year. In the legislative history of this act, when Minister Tobin, Captain Canada, brought it in, he spoke about mi

Fisheries committee  If it's about removing alien species or taking steps in that regard, I think the minister already has the ability to do that. I don't know if we need a specific amendment, but I could look into that more.

Fisheries committee  I agree.

Fisheries committee  Again, I'll agree.

Fisheries committee  I'll talk about large marine protected areas. They have been shown scientifically to be really effective. To take the example of probably the best known MPA in the world, Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, it's about 330,000 square kilometres and it is zoned. It has diff

Fisheries committee  I'll give you an example. Out here in British Columbia, up on the north and central coast, we have the marine planning partnership, or MaPP area, which you've heard about before. There are 102,000 square kilometres that have been under study for more than a decade by all levels o

Fisheries committee  Yes, I agree, and it's interesting to note that in New Zealand over 30% of its exclusive economic zone is closed to bottom trawling, just as one example of the many places in the world where this activity is curtailed in protected areas, not all over the sea but in protected area