Environment committee  We talked earlier about the symbolism of the RCMP issue and the gun registry. The long-gun registry in particular was a rallying cry for our hunting community, not only because of the sort of regulatory red tape, if you like, that it set before hunters but also because it sent a much more negative emotional signal that this activity was not something that was either valued or appropriate.

Environment committee  As a supplemental then, I would urge the committee to think differently about the private land strategy versus the crown land strategy. I think the models with regard to the private land strategy are there in the infrastructure file. I think you've been there before. I heartily agree with Dr.

Environment committee  I'll answer the second part of the question first. It could be devastating. It's an example of some of the legislation I referred to earlier where the unintended consequences or intended consequences on the hunting, fishing, and trapping community would be devastating from the perspective of the activity carrying on and in a more superficial sense the signal that sends to that community, which is investing in environmental conservation, that the activity is not going to be respected or tolerated.

Environment committee  Yes, thank you very much. Our vision for ALUS is as a private-public partnership to do conservation. I draw the analogy with infrastructure, where the federal government has a long history of working with the provinces, with municipalities, and more recently with the private business community to deliver roads, bridges, and needed infrastructure.

Environment committee  I'm going to answer the first part of your question that related to whether we are bringing all of the elements together. I would urge all of the committee, as policy-makers, to consider the other elements that go into recruiting and retaining hunting and angling and trapping on the landscape.

Environment committee  I can't think of a more negative signal to a private landowner than the one that makes the presence of endangered species a liability for them on their land as opposed to a source of potential incentive or revenues. I often tell people if they want to be up to their knees in burrowing owls, then they should pay landowners per burrowing owl that fledges from their landscape, and that's the appropriate signal.

Environment committee  Thank you. I think it was mentioned earlier that the national conservation plan is supporting the growth and expansion of the alternative land use services program, ALUS program, which is a program that seeks to engage private landowners and local governments in the delivery of conservation for the first time.

Environment committee  I'll just supplement that before I turn it over to Mark. That's exactly right. I think the respect that you need to have on that privately owned landscape for the situation that a farmer and a rancher is in drives you towards a program that works through incentives as opposed to regulation or purchase of that land for conservation purposes.

Environment committee  I would just add to Mark's comments to say that the influence of habitat and predation are kind of two sides of the same coin. You take the case of ducks that nest, for example. Most of those species nest in the upland areas, the grass areas of the prairies. When there are fewer of those undisturbed grass areas for them to nest in, their nest success is reduced.

Environment committee  Mr. Chair, I'm speaking on behalf of a waterfowl organization, and as I mentioned before, there's a disproportionate 80% to 90% of nesting ducks that depend on the privately owned landscape known as the prairie pothole region, which begins in Iowa and stretches up through to Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Montana, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta—275,000 square miles of habitat that is virtually entirely privately owned.

Environment committee  I think most Canadians are not aware of the contributions that hunters, anglers, and trappers make to conservation, either financially, in a taxation sense as we've covered, or in a philanthropic sense. I think the funding is taken for granted within the sustainable use community and I think it's unknown within the community outside of that sector.

Environment committee  The evolution of the alternative land use services program began with our conversations with farmers. It was very much a conversation with the hunting community, who were seeking to conserve more habitat on a landscape that is for the most part privately owned. Waterfowl depend, ducks depend on basically the privately owned part of the Midwest in the U.S. and Canada.

Environment committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and members of the committee. I appreciate the opportunity to offer some observations. Delta Waterfowl, for your background, is an international charity dedicated to the conservation and sustainable use of waterfowl. Our constituency is the duck hunting community in both Canada and the United States but our remarks apply generally to the contributions of hunters, trappers, and anglers.

Environment committee  I find the IUCN discussion to be somewhat akin to measuring inputs and ignoring outputs, because any of the lands that we're talking about may not be productive, biologically, but they may be more productive if they're managed. So I think it's much more important that we measure the biodiversity outputs of the lands that we are investing in, as opposed to measuring some artificial construct of what inputs are going in.

Environment committee  No, I don't think so. In think the main focus should be on how we address mitigation policies for all development, whether that be the development of oil and gas, the development of hydroelectric power, or the development of agricultural land. The focus should be on finding ways to convert that development into mitigation policies that have real benefits ecologically.