Environment committee  Thank you. We have such amazing environmental challenges: climate change, Great Lakes health, biodiversity. The World Wildlife Fund put out a report about a month ago that said, I think, that more than a half of our wildlife populations are in danger worldwide. When we have a pa

Environment committee  Thank you. With the amendment, this is a different type of park. This is a new partnership, and if you're not going to be high-handed.... Parks Canada has amazing expertise, but there is 26 years of work. I can tell you that I've been to hundreds of meetings with tens of thousan

Environment committee  Let's carry forward. The legislation is good, but it will be much better with that amendment.

Environment committee  Let me start. I'll just give you a couple of comments. This legislation is separate from the Canada National Parks Act, so although it adopts the ecological integrity definition, it is a separate piece of legislation and it flows from 30 years ago. The roots of this flow from

Environment committee  We actually went to an Ecojustice lawyer, John Swaigen, who literally wrote the book on environmental law. He was one of the founders of the Canadian Environmental Law Association. I worked with him when I was a vice-chair with the environmental assessment board with the province

Environment committee  It was basically that thing that you have separate legislation. We've heard things like we don't want to undermine this high, lofty ideal of ecological integrity that is applicable to some of our parks way out there in the great north and other places. That's true, but this is a

Environment committee  I think that Dr. Woodley gave an excellent answer. I've had the benefit of visiting about 20 of our national parks. If you go to Banff, there's a lot of development there, but in the National Parks Act, ecological integrity is prioritized. If you go to Jasper or Riding Mountain

Environment committee  On the issue of infrastructure, I think one of the things that would be great is if we can work on the connectivity. Underpasses and overpasses have been done in other parks to keep the public and nature safe. There are things like funnel fences, where you can actually funnel wil

Environment committee  Thank you. We really appreciate the support of so many of the people who are community leaders in the eastern GTA. The existing plans were science-based, they were done over a 26-year period, and they had broad public consultations. All levels of government were involved, as we

Environment committee  Either one, Madam Chair. If it goes in clause 9, or it goes in clause 6, it's the idea of carrying through with the commitments.

Environment committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair and members. I'd like to thank the thousands of people who have worked on this park for many, many years, people in the whole GTA and across Canada who have experienced the Rouge Park and love it. I'd like to thank a few people who are with me t

Environment committee  No. A management plan should be specific. It shouldn't say “trust us”, it should write it down specifically. When the federal government signed the memorandum of agreement, they said specifically that in the creation and management of the park, they would meet or exceed the exist

Environment committee  The key ones are ecological integrity—

Environment committee  The lack of priority-setting.... As everyone has said, it is in a protected area under international and national definitions, and unless you give priority to nature.... This is a little sliver, a piece of land, a tiny bit of the landscape that happens to survive.

Environment committee  Well, can I—