Natural Resources committee  Thank you. I will try to answer your question by linking it to our mandate. As we mentioned in the opening statement, we consult communities before we issue rights. During those consultations, specific regions are often identified as being especially valuable or important to the local communities' way of life.

Natural Resources committee  As I mentioned, we take care of management in oil and gas. That said, reclamation comes under the same organization. The Northern Affairs Organization within the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development is in charge of a reclamation program for contaminated sites.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you for that good question. Before I give a specific answer, I would like to mention that, in the Northwest Territories, one of the areas the industry is currently interested in has been explored and developed in the past. I am talking about the area referred to as the Sahtu region.

Natural Resources committee  I apologize, but I have to ask you to be more specific when talking about agreements. We have comprehensive and territorial agreements that impose obligations on proponents and on the Government of Canada. Clearly, those are agreements we continue to implement. As for the rest, I must admit that it is not very clear to me—

Natural Resources committee  Thank you. Ms. Fortier and I work for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. We are in charge of the rights issuance program for the north. Clearly, your questions are a bit more general. The Canadian government's income transfer program for the territories and negotiations under an assessment process are issues that involve fiscal policy, which comes under the Department of Finance's jurisdiction.

Natural Resources committee  I'm not sure I understand your question.

Natural Resources committee  There are several aspects to your question. If my understanding is correct, regarding environmental assessments, specific legislative provisions are currently being considered. As Ms. Fortier said at the beginning of her presentation, we make a clear distinction between, on the one hand, economic decisions—decisions involving the issuance of rights and the establishment of a royalty regime—and, on the other hand, environmental assessment decisions.

Natural Resources committee  Yes. Just to add one point, as part of our program around the approval of the Canada benefit plans, we do require evidence surrounding training opportunities for northerners and aboriginal residents of the north as well. As you can appreciate, it requires a very precise matching of training and capabilities to the actual opportunities and the industrial activities that are proposed.

Natural Resources committee  Yes. In our legislation we actually call for the development of what's referred to as Canada benefit plans, so we require, actually, proponents to provide full and fair opportunities for northerners and local residents of the north. Basically, any time a private sector company wants to come forward and propose exploration and development activities, we require them to go out and produce concrete benefits and opportunities for northerners.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. To respond to your query, yes, we can provide a summary of all existing research that has been undertaken in the Beaufort Sea. One component of that is specifically around emergency preparedness and response and, more importantly, around prevention as well.

Natural Resources committee  Very quickly, the way I would approach this question would be to say that each undertaking or each activity is actually different. The way the regulatory system is actually designed—and you may be aware of this—we have a goal-oriented regime. That is, the regulator actually expects all proponents to come forward with, in this case, as it relates to emergency preparedness, an appropriate response plan.