Thank you for that. In a sense, I feel that I'm also signalling to other witnesses to come, and to our own government and my colleagues, that I'm looking for a stronger regime around the determination of equivalency.
In my estimation, a system of determining equivalency premised solely on unfettered discretion is not the direction to go in. I totally agree with the idea that we want one assessment. We want collaborative federalism so that governments are working together on environmental assessments. However, that can't be achieved through a unilateral, unfettered discretion to simply say that the provincial assessment is equivalent to what is required under federal law.
What I'm looking for in the future is some real guidance on this. I signal that to our witnesses today and to others who may be paying attention to these hearings.