I think the standardization would be a good thing. I think, though, the way I would go about it is more uniform training and in some regions more people. I know that at one point people in DFO were very frustrated. One of my fellow scientists who was doing reviews exclaimed that he had 400 before him, ranging from an individual road culvert up to a pulp mill in size, which he was expected to do rapid screening on and declare them as ones that could be handled by an individual officer or had to go to some higher level of review, the highest being a full federal-provincial review. So they've been manpower-limited; I'm sure they've been training-limited. It's like any police force or whatever. Standards are variable across the country. We do our best to make sure they're not, but they always are.
On May 29th, 2012. See this statement in context.