Yes, I am. Thanks for the question.
It's very routine. The term “consulting” with interested parties is used in many pieces of Canadian legislation. Even just dealing with Environment and Climate Change Canada, they put out on a website on a routine basis “here's an opportunity to comment”. People have that opportunity to comment. Then the minister reports.
The only mandatory portion of what the minister must do is to table the report and prepare the report in consultation with those groups. It's not an in-person event. It doesn't mean that the minister has to sit down and have tea with everybody who has written to him or her or them, by that point.
This is pretty boilerplate. I'm sure Environment Canada can confirm. I don't know how many consultations Environment and Climate Change Canada does. Just trying to keep up with them and write back myself is exhausting. I think I see on the order of one or two a month of consulting with the public at large and individual interest groups, etc.
That is the intention, but I don't think it's onerous.