13:41:57 From  Madeline Weld  to  Everyone:
	Q: At the COP15 on biodiversity in Montreal, Prime Minister Trudeau designated Ontario’s Hudson’s Bay lowlands as one of four protected areas.  It constitutes 23% of the territory but has only 10,000 people.  The remaining ~61% of the province is Canadian Shield and has 7% of the population.  Southern Ontario, the most biodiverse part of the province, constitutes only about 15% of the territory but has 93% of the population.  It is growing rapidly but got zero protection.  So the designation of protected areas seems more symbolic than meaningful.  How do we make politicians create meaningful protected areas?

13:43:35 From  Peter Bulkowski  to  Everyone:
	Q:  In terms of protection of species, and the challenge of invasive species, what should be done about wild pigs?

13:45:21 From  Richard van der Jagt  to  Everyone:
	C:  It would be good if they killed the proposed highway 413 and kept the existent conservation areas in the Toronto region.

13:46:05 From  William Rees  to  Everyone:
	Q:  H. sapiens is the major and most dangerous invasive species.  Is conserving 50% of Canada's productive lands and waters compatible with the push to raise our population to 100 million by 2100?

13:51:02 From  William Rees  to  Everyone:
	Q:  Note that the 70% loss of vertebrate populations has mostly corresponded with the period since the Convention on Biodiversity was introduced.   What evidence is there of a positive effect?

14:04:10 From  William Rees  to  Everyone:
	Q:  Does CPAWS have a population policy?

14:05:38 From  John Hollins  to  Everyone:
	Q:  Compliments to CPAWS for getting your agenda into platforms for the 2015 election.  Most advocates want to get their issues into the government’s agenda right away.  I am aware that some target opposition parties on the grounds that the governing party is overwhelmed by the job of governing.  How did CPAWS have the patience to look to the future?

14:06:02 From  John Meyer  to  Everyone:
	Q:  The protected areas for Canada are relatively easy as they aren't owned by developers.  Can you translate the areas in question to biomass?  That is, since the areas ae in the far north typically, what would 30% of Canada's land area translate to in terms of biomass protected?

14:08:10 From  Jon Legg  to  Everyone:
	Q: To follow up on Bill Rees's question about whether CPAWS has a population policy, isn't the ever-growing immigration targets in conflict with Canada's biodiversity commitments?

14:09:07 From  Richard van der Jagt  to  Everyone:
	C:  Good point.  We can't sustain 500,000 new immigrants annually.

14:12:38 From  Peter Bulkowski  to  Everyone:
	Q:  How much of Canadian protection of waters is Arctic, and will that be effective given the massive development underway by Russia?

14:14:08 From  Ted Manning  to  Everyone:
	C:  The Provinces are critical and they also plan and control nearly all of the land except that which is Federal, but does include National Parks and other places like areas under National Defence or Federal prisons.  When we developed the Federal Policy on Land Use in the last Century it only could apply to Federal holdings and to some extent to the Territories.  Designating Parks or Park reserves in the North was easier than fighting Provinces.  Oceans are even easier.  Regrettably most of the most valuable and biodiverse lands are within the Ecumene and under the greatest pressures for use.  Over 37% of Canada's class 1 agricultural land is visible from the top of the CN tower, and a large  part of the prime wetlands are also peri-urban and rapidly being converted.  Keep up the good work to keep this in the political arena.

14:18:34 From  Dave Dougherty  to  Everyone:
	Q.  What would it take to get Canada's Conservative parties to endorse conservation?

14:19:11 From  Claude Buettner  to  Everyone:
	Q:  Do you anticipate that the term "native species" at some point will be redefined to take into account changing temperature and precipitation patterns?

14:19:27 From  Richard van der Jagt  to  Everyone:
	C:  Public pressure and money.  [This was in response to the question about Conservative parties.  Ed.]

14:21:11 From  Phil Reilly  to  Everyone:
	Q.  Much protected areas are “Focal” areas important to humans.  How much effort has a been put into protecting baseline life-forms that support the pyramids of life forms that create a livable world for all the species that make life possible?  I’m thinking of pollinators and plant varieties requiring unpolluted soils?

14:21:36 From  William Rees  to  Everyone:
	Q:  What is there to give us confidence that the COP15 results will be any more effective than the 1992 convention?  Also, is comparison with the Paris climate accord really helpful?  The latter has failed to produce the necessary emissions reduction pledges and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have been rising steadily since 2015.

14:27:25 From  Richard van der Jagt  to  Everyone:
	C:  No commitments from Ontario.  Am I surprised?

14:46:30 From  William Rees  to  Everyone:
	C:  Error!  The  global economy is the major threat to climate and biodiversity.

14:47:38 From  Claude Buettner  to  Everyone:
	C:  Regarding Finance as changing where investments are made: Network for Greening Financial Systems (NGFS), https://www.ngfs.net/en

14:47:54 From  Richard van der Jagt  to  Everyone:
	C:  That is the whole argument in Naomi Klein's book "This Changes Everything."  It is either the economy or it is the environment.

14:52:59 From  Richard van der Jagt  to  Everyone:
	C:  We need CACOR days on The Hill.

14:57:53 From  William Rees  to  Everyone:
	C:  Many thanks, Alison.  Love your optimism (though I don't share all of it!)  Gotta go on the hour.

14:58:47 From  William Rees  to  Everyone:
	Q:  Does planning help if governments simply override as needed (Toronto regional green belt comes to mind)?

15:00:14 From  Richard van der Jagt  to  Everyone:
	C:  Hence the need for densification and not sprawl.

15:00:26 From  John Meyer  to  Everyone:
	C:  CPAWS funding goes away if they adopt a population policy.

15:02:33 From  Claude Buettner  to  Everyone:
	Q:  Speculate, please--during what emergency situations would it be possible to conserve the global atmosphere by declaring the hydrocarbon reserves part of the biological preserves?

15:02:58 From  Richard van der Jagt  to  Everyone:
	Q:  Is conserving farmland part of maintaining biodiversity?

15:19:26 From  Dave Dougherty  to  Everyone:
	C:  "Private" land  can always be expropriated.  Ultimately, all land belong to the Crown, though indigenous peoples do have treaty rights.  The 
rest of us do not have such rights.  We could well look to expropriations for nature protection and rewilding.