Through the course of our consultations, we certainly heard a lot of support for having proponents engage with us early and have that early planning process where there is open and transparent access to the conversation around how projects are being developed. I think the thing that is probably most beneficial is that, because of that early engagement, we have a much better sense of what the key issues are for those projects, what the key interests are from communities and indigenous groups, which allows us then to work on focusing and scoping the project. I mentioned tailored impact statement guidelines in my remarks. That's a new tool under the act that allows us to tailor the issues that are most important in the process, so that when that assessment begins, proponents already know at the outset what the key issues are and what the information methodologies would be in terms of requirements for bringing themselves into the next step of the assessment.
On February 25th, 2020. See this statement in context.