Thank you, Mr. Kelloway.
I want to thank the ministers and officials for being here.
I want to ask a question on the regional assessments and regions of national interest, because I think this is perhaps the most novel part of the first part of the bill. I think looking at regional assessments and moving planning upstream actually have a lot of potential benefits, particularly for proponents, by giving more certainty. Also, from an ecological basis, it allows you to look at a landscape, watershed or habitat level, and this is important when you're looking at environmental impacts.
To date, this tool has primarily been used under the Impact Assessment Act to situate and inform project-level assessments. This new shift in Bill C-39 really puts a lot of emphasis on getting those regional assessments to be very rigorous.
My question for you, Minister, is this: Can you explain the standards that the government expects those assessments to meet before a region of national interest can be designated?