Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In addressing this broad suite of issues that you described, I'll suggest three things Environment Canada is engaged in and intends to remain engaged in. First of all, with respect to specific issues on specific reserves, in Environment Canada we see ourselves playing a supporting role to Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Let me commit to try to find out where the response is to your letter. And yes, the department across all of its programs has taken a look at our obligations with respect to what's known as “duty to consult”. The particular court case applied to the Species at Risk Act, but across the department we have reinforced our basic obligations under the Constitution to discharge that duty to consult across all our programs whenever we are contemplating a decision that might impact statutory, negotiated, or inherent aboriginal rights.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Although they have been somewhat amended, you're right that these provisions have been in CEPA since its first incarnation in 1988. Under the current part 9 we've promulgated federal PCB regulations--the storage tank regulations I referred to. In addition to authority to develop regulations, part 9 also authorizes a wide range of other activities, such as the development of objectives, guidelines, and codes of practice.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Chair and committee members, for taking an interest in the work of Environment Canada. In my opening remarks I'd like to address three issues. First, I'll provide a brief overview of environmental management generally in Canada. Second, I'll outline the nature of the environmental management regime on reserves, and I apologize if I'm duplicating testimony you've already heard.

Environment committee  I don't think we can speculate on the ultimate outcome of decisions that are not strictly limited to listing. Again, there are decisions as to how to implement, and of course the particular impact on forest-based communities extends beyond certain environmental statutes, and there's a global kind of downturn in the forest sector at large.

Environment committee  We have to manage so that we deliver on the legal obligations and also engender partnerships. There are instances of partnerships that haven't worked out. But one of the things we're trying to bring to your attention is the way in which relationships with partners were chilled by early interpretations of the act on our part together with misperceptions of the act on the part of others.

Environment committee  I'll try to answer that. Let me be clear that we don't have a mandate to come to you and say this part of the act is broken, or you should recommend fixing this part of the act or that part of the act. We can't do that. You've heard from witnesses. I do think, however, that we try to articulate some basic themes, principles, goals, directions that we share and most of the witnesses who appeared before you share.

Environment committee  At the moment the federal government has allocated across the three organizations--and it's important to emphasize that there are three, Parks Canada, Fisheries, and the Department of the Environment--approximately $100 million per year up until next spring, at which point in time some of the funding expires.

Environment committee  There are a couple of important factors. Yes, we have invested a lot in staffing up, in developing policies, and frankly in working our way through the legislation, in learning how to prepare cabinet for listing decisions, in learning how to do recovery strategies, and fundamentally in working with our partners.

Environment committee  Here, I'm afraid, we're getting on thin ice for officials. I think we're trying to outline for you some thematic concepts that you may want to consider. Whether that translates into specific implementation directions that we take, or indeed into some legislative reforms, those are decisions that the committee needs to take rather than us.

Environment committee  The critical decision that triggers action under the act is listing. The Governor in Council has discretion as to whether to list a species. Once a species is listed certain steps have to be taken. For the level of effort that we provide to each step, of course there is broad discretion, and that's what Mr.

Environment committee  I think that's an excellent question. There are some very fundamental decisions, if you will, that the committee needs to make about the kind of advice it provides to government about the act. I think we have tried to suggest to you that in implementing the act and in the learning process we've gone through, we've struggled to balance a number of things.

Environment committee  I'll answer that question indirectly. The act does not address ownership. What the act does is establish protection of species, and that protection arrives in different ways and has different status depending on the species itself and its location. If the species is on federal land, then certain protections apply automatically.

Environment committee  I'm not sure I can directly answer your question, but I'll attempt. First, I think you're asking if we have data that enables us to understand the impact of socio-economic considerations, for example, on certain decisions. In effect, I think the best data that we have was presented to this committee, and it wasn't generated by us.

Environment committee  Can we just elaborate a little bit on that question? I appreciate you're trying to get through some questions, but the question was specifically focused on loss of habitat. Although I defer to your scientific expertise, I think it's inappropriate to characterize the issue as strictly a loss of habitat.