Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I find this very interesting. I sit on the finance and agriculture committees. A lot of the issues you're talking about pop up in agriculture, and in finance, in the pre-budget talks, we're looking at things we can do to stimulate our economy. Regulations are definitely required, but duplication of regulations and duplication of jurisdictions definitely get in the way. Seeing projects move forward.... Whether it's in the mining, petroleum, or manufacturing sector, there have always been items or areas that have been identified that we need to move forward on.
Coming from Saskatchewan, I just did a round of meetings with a lot of my municipalities, and they talk about the culvert example. I'm sure you guys have heard that, where they're going to put a culvert in and all of a sudden they have to get an environmental assessment, then they have to look at the Navigable Waters Act, and then Fisheries and Oceans.... Where it would have taken them four hours to put the culvert in, all of a sudden it takes them four weeks, and where they would have spent $5,000 for a culvert, all of a sudden it's $35,000 for a culvert.
That's just in an RM with a group of farmers. That is a beef that comes across quite commonly and quite often, whenever I meet with my municipalities. How can we get this streamlined so that common sense comes back into the process, so that we still protect the environment but we move forward and allow activity to happen without stifling or choking it and making it impossible to do?
I'm sure you have examples of this in both the petroleum and the mining sectors. What kinds of examples could you tell this committee about? I think you started off with one in B.C. versus Australia. Maybe you can elaborate on that one a little bit?