Good morning.

Thank you, Minister Dabrusin, for your work and for that of Nathalie Provost and Joanne Thompson. You have made this historic day possible.

It’s great to have the backdrop of Gatineau Park, a jewel of Québec and of Canada’s National Capital Region.

Canada is a country blessed by an incredible natural heritage.

From the rugged Atlantic shores to the towering peaks of the Rockies. From the sweeping Prairies to the boreal forests to the Arctic to the sprawling mountains of B.C., nature is at the heart of our identity. It strengthens our sovereignty, supports our economy, and sustains our lives.

We are in a province where this reality is deeply felt. Where the landscape shapes the culture, the language, and everyday life.

Just like the rivers that flow into the St. Lawrence, which serve as waterways and vital arteries for ecosystems.

As Canadians, nature is in our nature.

Our natural environment makes us unique in the world.

Our lands stretch out to form the second-largest country in the world, bordered by the world’s longest coastline.

Canada is home to 20% of the world’s freshwater, 25% of global wetlands, almost a quarter of boreal forests, and more than 80,000 species – from the iconic polar bears, beavers, and Canada geese, to the unique eastern wolf, Vancouver Island marmot, and Peary caribou.

Nature is an asset that provides a flow of goods and services over time.

These ecosystem services make nature our greatest ally to fight against climate change.

They help to mitigate and reduce the severity of climate disasters. Wetlands absorb carbon and excess rainfall, forests prevent erosion and floods, and healthy ecosystems reduce the impacts of severe weather that damages your community.

While protecting us, nature also provides for us, including the building blocks of life: food, clean water, and materials for shelter.

Our ecosystems provide massive economic benefits to Canadians.

The sites managed by Parks Canada alone contribute over $4 billion to Canada’s GDP and employ over 37,000 Canadians.

When we fail to protect nature, we are not making a sound economic choice.

We are making a choice that works against us.

The scale of our natural heritage makes our choices consequential for the world, and we have been a world leader in protecting global nature.

In 2022 at the United Nations (UN) Biodiversity Conference in Montréal, Canada helped secure the landmark agreement to halt and reverse nature loss – the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework.

As part of it, we committed to one of the world’s biggest conservation goals – protecting 30% of our lands and waters by 2030.

This included a commitment to identify critical areas for our biodiversity and ecosystems – and by conserving those habitats helping to limit the effects of climate change.

For a country as vast as ours, protecting 30% of our land and water is an ambitious goal. It is a goal that our government is determined to achieve.

To that end, today we are launching A Force of Nature: Canada’s Strategy to Protect Nature.

This ambitious new plan invests $3.8 billion of new funds across three pillars:

• Protecting nature
• Building Canada well
• Valuing and mobilising capital for nature

Nature is a force for well-being. When we protect nature, we are protecting Canadians – the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the rivers we swim in.

That’s why today, we are putting enduring mechanisms in place to achieve our goal of protecting 30% of our lands and waters by 2030.

To get there, we are moving forward with a comprehensive approach.

We will create new national parks and marine conservation areas, new national urban parks, and new Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs) – which are sites where the land and water can be conserved while allowing other activity.

Creating these spaces is ambitious and requires significant funding. We cannot do it with public money alone.

That’s why we will work with the private sector to catalyse investments into preserving our land and waters.

We are investing in our existing national parks to safeguard these extraordinary sites so they can be experienced for generations to come.

We all have our connections. Just outside of Fort Smith, where I was born, Wood Buffalo National Park has made the preservation of the bison and the whooping crane possible. When I was growing up in Edmonton, I made lasting memories in Jasper National Park, just as my kids did in Gatineau.

Creating new parks and making all parks more accessible will help every Canadian experience the beauty of our great nation as I did.

That’s why we renewed the Canada Strong Pass for this summer, so Canadians can visit National Parks for free.

It’s also why we are moving forward immediately on two new conservation sites: 

• The Wiinipaakw Indigenous Protected Area and National Marine Conservation Area in the Eastern James Bay, off Québec.
• The Seal River Watershed National Park Reserve in Manitoba.

The Wiinipaakw Indigenous Protected Area and National Marine Conservation Area will protect a vital region that supports Indigenous communities and is home to Canada’s great northern species, including polar bears and belugas.

The Seal River Watershed National Park Reserve will help protect the world’s largest intact watershed, providing natural carbon storage, water filtration, and flood protection, while preserving the habitat of polar bears, caribou, and other iconic Canadian wildlife.

Often, when we talk about conservation, we mean setting land aside and restricting most of the activity on it.

We have to find ways to conserve lands and waters while permitting activity that doesn’t threaten them.

We are achieving this through OECMs. An example of this is Canadian Forces Base Shilo, in southwestern Manitoba.

Parts of the land are actively used by the Armed Forces, while others remain undisturbed, protecting vital ecosystems.

We’re looking at other areas where we can do the same to conserve nature in a practical way without taking land out of use entirely.

Partnership is at the heart of our plan.

Indigenous Peoples have a deep, historic understanding of the environment.

We will work in partnership with Indigenous communities to implement this strategy.

We will work together with conservation organisations, drawing on their expertise in ecosystem protection.

We will work together with the provinces and territories to optimise our conservation efforts at the national level.

Right now, only 14% of our land is protected.

Through new parks and conservation areas, we will add an additional 16% by 2030 – achieving our 30% goal.

As we protect our land, we will protect our waters.

We are establishing up to 14 new marine-protected and conserved areas and up to 10 new national marine conservation areas.

Two of these areas are in the Arctic – the Sarvarjuaq and Qikiqtait Marine Protected Areas.

Together, they help protect the habitats of species that are central to the Arctic ecosystem – polar bears, walruses, and beluga whales.

In total, the new conservation areas will add over 12% to our 30% target, bringing us to up to 28% of protected waters once complete.

To restore our waters, we are removing one of the deadliest forms of marine pollution – ghost gear – abandoned and discarded fishing gear that harms marine mammals and seabirds.

We are extending the Ghost Gear Fund, which has already removed more than 2,500 tonnes of fishing equipment from Canada’s waters since 2020.

Canada’s new government is investing in existing efforts that will deliver the best results – like the Pacific Salmon Strategy, which protects this vital lifeblood of ecosystems in the West Coast.

And we’re investing in Canada’s wild Atlantic Salmon Strategy to stabilise and then rebuild wild salmon populations.

A strong and resilient economy depends on healthy ecosystems.

Balancing nature conservation with development has two advantages.

It stimulates growth while also protecting the natural environment, which is the foundation of our economy.

Our government is tirelessly committed to building a new economy built on major infrastructure projects.

We will build sustainably while preserving our natural environment – because a country's strength depends on the health of its land and the quality of its water.

Nature is a driving force for our economy thanks to the vitality of its ecosystems.

We must adopt construction methods that support our conservation efforts, while creating and protecting nature and wildlife preserves.

Through more comprehensive mapping of our nature, we will have a better understanding of biodiversity and carbon sequestration capacity across Canada.

Improved mapping will also create predictable pathways for project approvals and catalyse investments in conservation.

Nature can be a force for good that mobilises private capital for the protection of our environment.

As I know from my work as UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, when the private sector incorporates reducing emissions and protecting nature in their value chains, they have greater incentives to invest and are motivated to reduce practices that result in habitat loss and pollution.

In Canada and around the world, innovative financing models are emerging to help direct private investment toward protecting nature.

To capitalise on these tools, we will launch an expert task force on natural capital accounting and nature-protection financing.

The task force will identify how we measure nature’s value and explore pathways to treat it as an asset worth protecting. An asset we cannot live without.

When we track the condition of our ecosystems with the same rigour we bring to tracking economic and financial performance, we create a foundation for investment decisions that protect ecosystems.

Our national identity is rooted in our country’s magnificent, diverse landscapes.

As the Saugeen Ojibway Nation poet, Elder Dr. Duke Redbird, observed: “The Spirit of the people is equal to the Power of the land.”

What we have inherited as Canadians is extraordinary.

But in return, we have a responsibility to protect what we have – to be the caretakers of the lands and waters we revel in.

This is a responsibility that Canada’s new government is acting on with focus and determination.

Thank you.