Environment committee  The board will produce its report and its recommendations and present those to the minister. That report is made public, and that is the judicial panel process, if you will, a quasi-judicial process. With that, the government has stated very clearly that it will further assess

Environment committee  Indeed. One of the principles is to ensure that the decisions are based on science and the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples and other relevant experts.

Environment committee  Thank you very much for the opportunity to appear before the committee today. It's a great pleasure for me. I'll perhaps keep my remarks quite brief, so that my colleagues from the National Energy Board can follow. Let's start by indicating that we all recognize that Canada's

Natural Resources committee  The purpose or intent of the bill in this set of clauses is obviously to give some guidance to what might be sentencing provisions. In this particular instance it essentially says that the offender may not apply until the period the court considers appropriate. There is the poten

Natural Resources committee  I'll turn to my Justice colleague for this question.

Natural Resources committee  Proposed section 48.18 establishes that the Governor in Council can establish a tribunal, or may designate a circumstance in which the government needs to intervene, and in those circumstances when it's in the public interest, it could establish a tribunal. The legislation does n

Natural Resources committee  That's the rough policy logic behind it: where needed.

Natural Resources committee  In this particular instance, it is the orders of the board to reimburse for costs that fall within the category of expenses incurred. The board may require the company in question to do so, and in doing so, it would take into account the “polluter pays” principle and the componen

Natural Resources committee  The general premise behind the financial requirements aspect of the bill is to provide some assurance that the particular operator of the pipeline who is seeking the certificate has the financial wherewithal, and that those things are listed. Here we are following other federal s

Natural Resources committee  Proposed subsection 48.12(8) addresses Her Majesty's costs and expenses as incurred. So a finite amount of costs and expenses would be removed from the government's ability to pursue it under the Fisheries Act. It would be important to start with the Fisheries Act. It only appli

Natural Resources committee  Removing proposed subsection 48.12(8) would remove the government's ability to pursue damages under either act. It provides that a pipeline incident would be pursued under the pipeline safety act, or the National Energy Board Act, I think, is is where it will ultimately end up.

Natural Resources committee  Prior to the bill being introduced the liability regime in the NEB Act is fairly broad and doesn't have a lot of specificity. As the amendments point out, we're introducing a high degree of specificity, including an operator being accountable for any fault or negligent activity i

Natural Resources committee  My understanding is that this is aimed at avoiding a conflict between federal and provincial law. That said, in the areas in any province where there is a federal pipeline that is under federal jurisdiction, they're inherently federal works. The degree to which, and the potential

Natural Resources committee  This is the beginning of the liability section of the bill. Essentially, this section sets out that the polluter pays. Those who are at fault or are negligent for a release, an unintended release, would be responsible for actual loss and economic loss, if you will, the costs and

Natural Resources committee  I'll at least give it my best effort. How's that? Thank you for the chance to comment. The amendment proposes to insert what has been defined at the beginning of the bill as a term: “Aboriginal governing body”. By including the term here, it would, as member of Parliament Ms. M