I don't know if the federal government is consulted at all on the sign-off. I do know that what industry is saying about reclaiming to the same sort of communities that were on that land before is not going to happen. My wife, for example, is a scientist working in reclamation in the oil sands. What needs to be done is to set some reasonable reclamation targets that can be obtained, and then reclaim.
On March 30th, 2010. See this statement in context.