Thank you for your question.
You're right. A project like the Vista mine has a profound impact on biodiversity, and it affects federal interests, particularly fisheries and other species at risk.
A large-scale thermal coal project like Vista certainly should have been assessed. However, I see that under the Nature Accountability Act, it wouldn't be possible to make a regulatory decision like that. That's not its purpose. However, it would provide a better understanding of how such decisions do or do not affect Canada's targets.
At the moment, we have no way to assess whether a regulatory decision will undermine our objectives. That's why we need a shield to protect biodiversity—that's one of our suggestions—and to ensure that federal authorities consider the impact of projects like Vista on Canada's biodiversity targets.
That should have been taken into account in the decision not to assess the project.