Speaking as a biologist, I would just add that from a biological perspective, the tension here is that the longer you wait for consultation—of course consultation is important, in particular with first nations—the more you lose your opportunities, the more you endanger your species, and the more costly and difficult it is to end up recovering it. I think that whatever decisions are made about how to take on consultation with first nations or any other stakeholder, it really needs to come back to that continually. We have numerous species that are likely to wink out or go beyond the point where we can effectively recover them while in extended consultation limbo for listing, while waiting for critical habitat, and while waiting for protection of critical habitat.
On April 27th, 2010. See this statement in context.