Environment committee  Yes, that's no problem. It's urban families and new Canadians, people who may be new to Canada and who haven't experienced our national parks and historic sites. We also target low-income families, low-income Canadians, and Canadians who might face accessibility challenges.

Environment committee  It's an excellent question. You're absolutely right that our visitation in the first year of the pandemic, 2020-21, was 17 million. We reached 21.6 million in the last fiscal year. What's important, actually, about that number for Parks Canada is that we had very low international visitation, of course.

Environment committee  That's an excellent question. I recall that parliamentary question, so I'm grateful for the query. In fact, much of our promotional work and advertising is managed centrally and is not delivered necessarily park by park or historic site by historic site across the country. For 2022, in fact, we resumed advertising.

Environment committee  For our projections for visitation this year, it's going to be an interesting year for Parks Canada. If it's of any help, we can advise that the year is starting pretty well. The tourism industry broadly across Canada is experiencing below 2019 levels but certainly above last year's expenditures by tourists in Canada.

Environment committee  It's one of our favourite initiatives at Parks Canada. We take a lot of joy in introducing people to nature and to the experience of cultural and natural heritage places. The learn to camp program offers a fairly broad range of activities. There are roughly 40 overnight events conducted every year.

Environment committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's a pleasure to be with you this evening. As you know, my name is Michael Nadler, and I am the vice-president of external relations and visitor experience at the Parks Canada Agency. With me are four members of the agency's senior management team. Next to me is Catherine Blanchard, vice-president of finance and chief financial officer of the Parks Canada Agency.

Environment committee  We were not down 66%. Our visitation was 66% of normal, so we were down 34%.

Environment committee  Sure, I can give a general answer, and then Catherine Blanchard may add some financial detail. As you might be aware, we ceased operations briefly in 2020 to prepare and adapt to the COVID-19 context. Then we opened a smaller number of places than we might otherwise have, and we also had to limit some of the activities that would normally be available to visitors, such as events and activities like the bird festival.

Environment committee  I'll be very brief. Thank you, Ron, and thank you, Mr. Chair. We will absolutely be opening our sites, and we're looking forward to a resumption of our operations come spring. Across the country, visitors should expect a number of adjustments, just as they experienced last year, in terms of the operation of our places.

Environment committee  Once again, that is a good question. The spring was obviously difficult. Parks Canada Agency made an unprecedented decision to close its sites to visitors. In May, we planned and announced a resumption of our activities. On June 1, we reopened our sites to the public. Little by little, we increased the services provided to visitors in a number of locations across Canada.

Environment committee  Thank you very much for the question. The economic impact is in fact impressive. As you noted, our national parks and historic sites are located close to a number of communities across Canada. Even during this difficult period related to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have done our best to work closely with the tourism industry to support this important sector of our economy.