Thank you very much for that question.
I think I'd start by saying that environmental protection and safety are pretty much hardwired into our processes. As you know, the National Energy Board conducts environmental assessments that are fully compliant with the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012, in all of our major projects. In addition to that, all of the minor projects undergo an environmental assessment along with the economic, safety, and other kinds of things the board has to look at when it considers a project.
Nothing has changed in terms of the focus and the intensity of our environment work. We have about 70 staff who are directly involved in environmental assessment and environmental compliance verification, so it's a very big deal at the board. It's our largest technical job family. I think we have great tools in the legislation that we have. We have very powerful enforcement abilities, and we take a life-cycle approach to environmental oversight as well as safety oversight.
That's something that is a feature of having a dedicated regulator in a sector like interprovincial and international energy transport. That means that, when we look at a project, we can consider optimizing the design from an environmental perspective. That's the purpose of environmental assessment. But through management system oversight, audits, inspections, and other kinds of techniques, we make sure that the outcomes we're looking for are delivered through the life of those projects.
It is a challenge. Some of broader context of the environment has changed, as you quite well know. I think we're very well equipped to do that, and we have a very passionate staff in that area.