Thanks for the question. This is exactly the kind of statement that should be subjected to the light of day and scrutiny through an impartial arm's-length, independent, objective, fact-based, science-based, and evidence-based process. That is why these changes should be hived off and referred directly to Canada's National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy to conduct precisely that kind of ground-truthing, shall we say. There's a clear difference between the political rhetoric we've heard and the reaction on the ground.
In fairness, every stakeholder I have spoken to who's in favour of seeing this kind of process conducted is in favour of improvement. I don't think there's a single Canadian who's saying, “Yes, let's delay projects for the sake of delaying them. Let's make them more difficult and more costly.” Everyone wants to see improvement.
The question is, can we take what the ministers are saying at face value? With all due respect to the ministers, I don't, and I think most stakeholders don't. So it would be very apropos to send this to the national round table—just building on some of the comments Chief Atleo made, for example, when the question arose about consultation.
The national round table conducted a fabulous piece of work on aboriginal communities and non-renewable resource development. There's an entire section on the challenges of the consultation and how they might be overcome. This is exactly the kind of information the government would benefit from, in my view.