Minimum protection standards have been discussed for 20 years. When we were here last time we talked about the various tools. We have the Canada National Marine Conservation Areas Act, which establishes national marine conservation areas. It's done by Parks Canada.
There is a piece in it which says there can be no oil and gas extraction. It says there must be a certain area that's a no-take zone. That is not in the Oceans Act for MPAs. Some people have said that you should be looking at that.
With MPAs the idea has been, for marine protected areas under the Oceans Act, to identify what needs protection for biodiversity purposes and provide the appropriate protection for it without specific standards.
As we've gone through the past couple of years—and we have moved quickly—that issue has come up. The minister has said and announced a few weeks ago that we actually need to look at this. Should we have no-take zones? Should we have some basic minimum rules that this sort of activity or that sort of activity can't take place?
More than that, should there be a standard around monitoring and enforcement, around timelines for establishing them, around reviewing for effectiveness and every five years deciding whether you're going to review the act, or change it, or whatever? There are a number of things that could be in those standards. The thought was, rather than saying this, this, and this, let's have a panel of experts give some thought to it, engage with Canadians, and provide some advice to the minister.
Now, what happens afterwards in terms of whether legislation is required and whether it is binding depends on what we get. It could be done by policy, could be done by regulation, could be done by other means, but we don't want to take years to do this, so probably months, and it hasn't been decided. In any case, we think it's a really important issue and so a panel will consider it and provide advice.