I think public participation is a good example of the kinds of issues I was talking about more generically, this question of how you move from empowering decision-makers to do the right thing to properly guiding the decision-making. The short answer is I think a definition for meaningful public participation would be a helpful first step, but I think then you need to work through the act and identify appropriate direction, statutory and regulatory, to ensure that good decisions will be made in the future about public participation.
For me, a good starting point for that would be to think about setting up an advisory committee for the planning phase and start to think about, and probably in regulation, who should be on those kinds of advisory committees. If you get it right early in the planning phase, and you get all the key interests involved in designing the process, designing the scope, determining what information you need to make good decisions at the end of the day, then I think a lot of the challenges can be overcome early.
But I think you want to also think about how you make good decisions as you go along. For example, as I said in my presentation, we often think and rightly so, of the panel review as being the ultimate and the highest level of assessment, but even in that context different mechanisms sometimes are most effective. It's not always most effective to have a traditional-style hearing. We've had provision for mediation, ADR, for a long time, and we've never used it. So thinking carefully about how we ensure the broad range of tools are used effectively to achieve good outcomes is critical, because often bringing people together.... I can talk at length about what we did with strategic assessments in Nova Scotia on very controversial issues, like aquaculture, where we brought people with opposing views together. At the starting point, people were saying a moratorium or nothing, and we came up with a design, with a solution, that everyone applauded.
Having good and effective public participation processes that work for the context is critical. Depending on what first nations or indigenous communities are involved, having public participation processes that work for them is critical to properly engaging them. If you want to avoid opposition and bring along those who are affected and have a process that results in a common vision at the end, public participation is critical, and providing the proper guidance in the statute and through regulations.