Evidence of meeting #9 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 41st Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was ceaa.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Member, Vice-President, Safety, Health, Environment and Quality, Regulatory Relations, Cameco Corporation, Saskatchewan Mining Association
I'd start by saying that we had a long and storied history of consultation in relation to our projects in northern Saskatchewan, before the duty to consult became the focus of case law in that regard.
Cameco Corporation is the largest industrial employer of first nations and aboriginal people in Canada, so in that regard we--
NDP
Laurin Liu NDP Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
I don't have that much time. I'm going to interrupt you there.
Could you just say if you consider social licence something that the association could benefit from and help projects go ahead?
Member, Vice-President, Safety, Health, Environment and Quality, Regulatory Relations, Cameco Corporation, Saskatchewan Mining Association
Absolutely, and—
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Mark Warawa
Unfortunately, I'm going to have to stop you there. My apologies, but the time has elapsed.
Mr. Sopuck, you have the last two minutes.
Conservative
Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB
I'll be brief, which is difficult for a politician—and, hopefully, you will be too.
One of the CEAA criteria is that the process has the ability to question the need for a project.
Both Dr. Gibson, and Dr. Sinclair, do you consider that appropriate?
Prof. Robert Gibson
Certainly, and this usually is called the purpose of the undertaking.
If you have the purpose and the alternatives to serve that public interest purpose defined properly at the beginning, much of the rest gets easier and clearer.
Conservative
Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB
Don't you think, however, that the need and the purpose of a project or the allocation of a natural resource is best left to accountable elected officials as opposed to people who are involved in the CEAA process—who, with all due respect are not elected and, by definition, not accountable to citizens at large?
Prof. Robert Gibson
Certainly the ultimate responsibility should be with those who are accountable, and the decisions--
Conservative
Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB
To be elected, I think you meant to say.
Prof. Robert Gibson
Yes, they are the accountable people.
And the final decisions--and there should be a decision, in my view, under this act--should be the responsibility of elected officials, informed by proper process and transparency and full engagement, including on the trade-off questions among these larger issues.
Conservative
Robert Sopuck Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Marquette, MB
Regarding the assessment of the need for the project, I think that implicit to that is an assessment under CEAA of the business case for the project. Presumably, any project brought before CEAA will already have passed the business case test and, by definition, be economical—or at least the proponents are risking their own money.
And I'm certainly not qualified to do this, but do you, Dr. Sinclair, or Dr. Gibson, with all due respect, see yourselves as qualified to question the business case by proponents?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Mark Warawa
Mr. Sopuck, your time is up.
Unfortunately, time is up on the clock, too.
I want to thank the witnesses for being here.
NDP
Laurin Liu NDP Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
I'd like to move a motion before the committee.
Sorry, is this the proper time to move a motion?
NDP
Laurin Liu NDP Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
On a point of order, I move that the clerk look into inviting these witnesses back on another day that the committee meets.
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Mark Warawa
It did happen in the last Parliament, but it's against the rules.
I was just going to say to the witnesses that any input they'd like to provide—and there's no obligation here, as it's totally voluntary—will likely help form what a draft report will look like. Any recommendations would also be fine. While this is not required from witnesses, we would welcome it.
So with that I would accept a motion to adjourn.
The meeting is adjourned.
