Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The circumstances under which our act could apply would be for projects of national significance or certain transboundary projects.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Take a bit of a far-fetched example, maybe a nuclear plant in Yellowknife or something along those lines or some type of project that is new to the territory, which has significant concern from a public or environmental perspective. With respect to your question of standards, yo

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think it's important to know that the National Energy Board doesn't regulate the oil sands. They are regulated provincially, so they don't have any jurisdiction in that area. I can say more generally that the environmental assessment process under CEAA includes an assessment of

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Certainly. I have to preface this by saying I'm not an expert on the environmental assessment regimes in the north. Nonetheless, under the land claims agreements environmental assessment regimes have been established that apply in those territories. At the same time, they specif

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I would simply add that the report of the joint review panel for the Mackenzie gas project came out last December with a series of recommendations with respect to the project and how the panel sees that project proceeding. The government is currently studying those recommendation

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm not sure I can speak specifically to pipelines, but I can speak to resource projects in general. One of the tools that exists under our legislation is that we are able to delegate the conduct of environmental assessments to other jurisdictions. If our act applies to a project

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  As I mentioned earlier, our act currently applies very little in the north. The environmental assessment process is established under the land claims agreements to trump--a word I heard earlier--our process. So our process only applies in very limited circumstances for projects o

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Certainly the government is taking its responsibilities with respect to aboriginal consultation much more seriously. The funding that is being provided to our agency for aboriginal consultation is extremely valuable. It's well understood that we have responsibilities to consult w

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I have to confess, Mr. Chair, that my knowledge of that report is limited.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There's nothing today that changes how the assessment and the regulatory decisions on the MacKenzie gas project would be undertaken. My understanding is that the reference to substitution in the budget speech could apply to future projects, but not retroactively.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's right. Those members were all selected from outside government and were appointed not so much to represent the areas from which they came but to be nominees or appointees from the various settlement areas, as well as from the federal government.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In the case of the Mackenzie gas pipeline?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The joint review panel is a panel that was established between the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, or the Minister of the Environment in fact, and the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board and Inuvialuit Game Council. Those are the three partners in that asses

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The NEB certainly has jurisdiction over the pipelines that would cross through international or interprovincial or inter-territorial boundaries.