Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all of our witnesses for coming today.
I'm going to start first with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and then move to Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters.
Thank you for your submission today.
One thing that was common to both of your testimonies was the concern around the precommencement, the front-end completeness process. Proposed subsection 19(4)—we have affectionately called it the Groundhog Day clause—allows for a responsible authority or head to request another report endlessly because a project may be controversial or they may believe that more information is needed.
Is not having a front-end process a concern? Further to that, would requiring the responsible authority to determine completeness—let's say within a reasonable time of 45 days—and issue either a completeness determination or one consolidated deficiency notice identifying every reasonable, discoverable deficiency and its legal basis, and pause the clock...? They would start the clock but pause it while the company or proponent responds. This would allow there to be a hard set time to begin. If a company has not come with its ducks in a row, that puts the onus on the company. What do you think of a potential amendment to effectively cause the clock to start?