Thank you very much.
Thank you for your hard work on the natural resources committee.
It's important that we rebuild trust, and included in that is providing certainty to proponents. We know we need to make sure we're making decisions based on good science, on evidence, and on traditional knowledge. We also know that we need to provide certainty to proponents about how the system works.
In terms of the timelines, which I think is a really important point—I have heard the comment that providing certainty on timelines is important—we've done two things. One, on the front end, we've said we need better early planning and engagement, because if you can address concerns and problems, hear from communities and from indigenous peoples, you can work with provinces to align timelines with them. We have the principle of one project, one review, and if you can figure out the permitting process, you will get to a better spot when you get into the system. Early planning and engagement create more efficiency on the back end.
Two, our bill proposes stricter timeline management and fewer stops of the legislative clock. I think it's important to point out that we're shortening legislated timelines for the impact assessment phase for agency-led assessments from 365 to 300 days. Timelines for panel-led assessments would be reduced from 720 days to 600 days, which is from 24 to 20 months. The timelines for non-designated projects reviewed by life-cycle regulators would be reduced from 450 to 300 days.
Let me emphasize that the reason we are able to do that is that a lot of the hard work and engagement will be done on the front end, which will lead to more certainty and structured timelines on the back end so that we can get to better decisions.
Thank you.