Natural Resources committee  Maybe I could comment on the timelines. The timelines are legally binding on us. That doesn't mean we would rush through something in order to get the check mark that we met our 365 days. What would happen is if in the course of doing our consultations with aboriginal groups we

Natural Resources committee  First of all, if there is a joint process with New Brunswick and the Government of Canada, then yes, we would definitely be involved in setting the terms of reference and working with our provincial colleagues. The terms of reference would say that you should seek out information

Natural Resources committee  --when we ask aboriginal groups to state their views. The agency itself works as the crown consultation coordinator for the whole of government. Instead of having a process that is very distributed--having somebody at DFO and somebody at Transport and somebody at NRCan, each indi

Natural Resources committee  Do you want to know the exact types of mitigation a proponent would be asked to carry out? I'm not very good with my examples. You have worked in this a bit more.

Natural Resources committee  I thought of a concrete example. The types of mitigation are really of two types. Some of them are during the construction phase and some of them are permanent. During the construction phase, there could be a concern that nesting birds are going to be disturbed. The scientists wo

Natural Resources committee  Yes.

Natural Resources committee  We have a funding envelope for public participation. We have two elements of the envelope. One is for aboriginal participation and one is more general. We have an application process that essentially asks people to write in and describe why they need participant funding. They w

Natural Resources committee  Everything that is for a panel or for a comprehensive study is eligible for participant funding. There is no judgment on our part that some of them are more worthy or not. As long as it's a comprehensive study or a review panel, it's eligible.

Natural Resources committee  We have bilateral agreements with the provinces to say generally how we're going to work together, but then when we go in on a particular project, we set out a particular project agreement. We'll say, “All right, in your province you have a public hearing 30 days after this bench

Natural Resources committee  The constitutional duty to consult aboriginals is independent of the act. What we do is integrate aboriginal participation right into our environmental assessment process. At various stages we go out and consult with aboriginal groups. We consult with them at the very early stage

Natural Resources committee  We have a good working relationship with our provincial colleagues in Quebec, and the legislation of each order of government is something that each government respects. Our Quebec colleagues understand that if there is something in our act that calls on us to be at the table doi

Natural Resources committee  Under the act we apply only an environmental lens. However, we do look at indirect effects on socio-economic conditions, and by “indirect” I mean if the project causes an environmental effect and that environmental effect in turn brings about a socio-economic effect, we would loo

Natural Resources committee  I wouldn't say it's only the negative side that's looked at; I would say that it's the indirect side. So if the environmental impact on a particular group or individual was positive, that would factor in as well. It could be a positive or a negative effect from the environmental

Natural Resources committee  According to the act, we want to look at all the environmental effects. So we would look at the environmental effects in terms of loss of habitat, loss of ability to hunt, for people who want to hunt in that region. The comprehensive study would be structured with headers for all

Natural Resources committee  I'm cautious about saying that the decision is subjective, because the decision is based on a huge amount of research and science. He receives a recommendation that says on the basis of the information that has been collected from all of the stakeholders, there are or are not adv