Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  At the request of a province we would look at the conditions laid out in the act. The act is designed to ensure that the substantive elements of environmental assessment are carried out by a province. For example, we need to ensure the core elements, such as looking at the signif

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  I want to emphasize that these new tools of federal-provincial cooperation were put in at the request of the provinces. In 2009, the Canadian committee of ministers of the environment endorsed a report in which it recommended that jurisdictions add additional tools for cooperatio

Environment committee  Thank you very much. My name is Helen Cutts. I'm the vice-president of policy development at the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency. It's my pleasure to be with you this afternoon. My opening remarks will not take 10 minutes. That will give us more time for questions. Div

Environment committee  No. These are technical amendments. None of them change the policy intent of the original act.

Environment committee  As you know, there is an obligation in the act that federal authorities examine projects that are non-designated and happen to be on federal lands.They need to determine that there are no significant adverse environmental effects of their actions. Now, what we felt we needed to

Environment committee  It in no way weakens the standards we use for environmental assessment under these federal authorities. We refer to them as “federal stewardship”.

Environment committee  There are some transition provisions that indicate the possibility of exempting a project from the act. We don't think that our new change, which addresses this issue in order to create more fairness, will have a significant impact in terms of the number of projects being subject

Environment committee  The reaction has been very muted. We were doing a tour with our provincial colleagues, and they understood fully that these were technical changes. We had some consultations in the summer that were broader—on the project list—but at that time, these elements were still under th

Environment committee  We had, as I say, some conversations with first nations in the summer. There was a general comment that the process in the spring had been inadequate from their point of view, because they had not been consulted on the new act before it had been tabled. More broadly in terms of

Environment committee  The answer has two parts. In terms of the actual project list that came into force on July 6, at the same time that the act came into force, that was making use of the comprehensive study list, a regulation that was already in place. That regulation listed projects and types, suc

Environment committee  Yes. Then the second part of the answer is that, recognizing that that was put in place in order to ensure that the act could be implemented, we began immediately in July to contact aboriginal groups, environmental NGOs, the provinces, and industry associations. Our letters went

Environment committee  In terms of the government's approach to responsible resource development, it obviously sees an integrated system. The environmental assessment process comes first, and often there is federal permitting that comes after it. Clause 428 refers to a follow-up program. That follow-u

Environment committee  On the operations side, we've really had a handful of proponents that have come through under the new act—fewer than 10—and the feedback has generally been very, very positive. They're obviously not at that stage of the process, but they haven't raised concerns about entering int

Environment committee  In Canada, the provinces also generally have required follow-up programs of proponents. In other countries, it's a standard measure that's seen internationally as a good practice. The follow-up has another purpose as well. I've talked about ensuring purely for that project that

Environment committee  An environmental assessment is something required for projects that have gone through a screening, that were a part of the designated project list. That's a list in the regulations. Clause 430 is a special federal stewardship clause that is for non-designated projects, so the pro