Ottawa, Ontario, April 12, 2010 -- Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to stand in the House today to acknowledge the presence of a world-renowned environmentalist and true humanitarian who is here in Ottawa, Dr. Jane Goodall.
When I met Jane Goodall at the Wild 9 Conference last November, Canada and the world were celebrating the expansion of Nahanni National Park Reserve. Since then, our government has continued its active work towards the permanent protection of vast expanses of water, wetland, tundra, and boreal forest across Canada, from the Mealy Mountains of Labrador, to Lancaster Sound in Nunavut and to Haida Gwaii on the Pacific Coast.
From the birth of Canada’s first national park to 2006, Canada established a system of national parks and national marine conservation areas covering 277,000 km2. Since 2006, our government has protected 45,000 km2 and we have taken actions to expand this network by another 40,000 km2. In total, this represents an increase of 30% – an area slightly larger than Austria.
Mr. Speaker, as members of a global community supporting environmental conservation, we sincerely welcome Dr. Jane Goodall to Ottawa.
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