Thank you very much.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll do my best to keep my speech to ten minutes.
My name is Richard Edjericon, and I'm the chair of the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board in the Northwest Territories. The review board is one part of the environmental assessment and regulatory system that was set up under the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act in December 1998. It is the only environmental assessment body under the act in the Mackenzie Valley.
The review board is set up as an administrative tribunal and also as a co-management board. This means that it's made up of equal numbers of nominees from land claim organizations and governments, both territorial and federal. The structure facilitates a process that gives all potentially affected people in the Mackenzie Valley a say.
We take an objective look at exploration and development projects to see if there will be any significant impacts as a result of their activities. Each project is assessed in four main areas of impact: biophysical, social, economic, and cultural. Unique to our process, the review board also assesses the degree of public concern regarding a proposed development. Using scientific data, traditional knowledge, statements from individuals and organizations regarding potential impacts, and environmental, socio-economic, and cultural impact studies, the board does a thorough assessment of the proposed development referred to us, as is our mandate under the act.
To be referred for an environmental impact assessment, a regulatory authority, such as the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board or the National Energy Board, a federal or territorial government department, or the review board itself must decide whether the proposed development might have a significant adverse impact on the environment or cause public concern. Land claim organizations and local governments may also refer a project for environmental assessment.
After careful consideration, the board makes recommendations to mitigate development impacts so that a project can proceed without a significant impact on the environment and without causing significant public concern. The complexity of our process means that an environmental assessment can take between one to two years. We have been criticized for the length of time an assessment takes, and we have recently undertaken steps to streamline our process to reduce this time commitment.
In the event that an assessment shows that a project is likely to have a very significant impact or may cause public concern, the review board can refer it for a full environmental impact review, which is conducted by a separate independent panel that is appointed by the board.
Fewer than 5% of all proposed development projects in the Mackenzie Valley are referred for environmental assessment. Presently we have five active assessments before the board. One is nearing completion after two years. One is about to proceed, as the developer has just filed what is called a developer's assessment report, which is a detailed report by the developer of the planned project. The other three are waiting to proceed, pending receipt of the developer's assessment reports.
We are very much aware that aboriginal people in the Mackenzie Valley want jobs. I was also a former chief of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation for four years, from 1999 to 2003. At that time, unemployment was more than 80%. But five years later, with the start of the BHP Billiton diamond mines after a full environmental impact review that lasted three years, employment in my community is more than 80%. In Detah alone, about $5 million in salaries is earned annually as a result of these diamond mines.
Aboriginal people in the north are not against development, but they want to see it proceed in an environmentally responsible manner and they want to share the benefits.
Of the 5%, the review board has referred only two projects to a full environmental impact review in the 11 years since the inception of the act. One was the Mackenzie gas project, which was referred under the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act, with CEAA and the Inuvialuit Final Agreement. The other was De Beers' Gahcho Kué diamond project, which De Beers has delayed due to the recession.
All these bodies--the review board, the land and water board, and the regional panels of the land and water board--derive their authority from the Mackenzie Valley Resources Management Act, which in turn derives its authority from settled land claims. As such, these co-management boards are protecting the environment and at the same time are facilitating environmentally responsible development on behalf of aboriginal people and all residents of the Mackenzie Valley.
In the Mackenzie Valley, we all know about the huge environmental problems caused by Giant Mine, the legacy of which has ongoing environmental impacts.
It is in this sense of helping proposed projects proceed to environmentally sound developments that the review board is a solution for responsible development and not a barrier. There are things we can change in our process to streamline it and make it timelier, and as mentioned earlier, we have undertaken to do that. We are committed to continuing improvement in our process, and we work closely with developers, communities, and land claim organizations to ensure that our process is fair, timely, objective, and thorough.
l'd like to talk about the barriers to development in the Mackenzie Valley as we see them. All of them, in our estimation, are capacity issues that need more resources in the form of funding, staffing, or policy direction, or all three, in order to be resolved. All of them have impacts on the successful completion of fair and thorough environmental assessments, delays in which also work to delay or even deter development. I will list them in point form, with a brief explanation of each.
First is capacity to develop and complete land use plans: We have noticed that in areas where there is a land use plan in effect, there are very few referrals for environmental assessments. We get more referrals from areas without a land use plan. With a land use plan, a developer has all the rules, so to speak, about where, when, and how a development can take place. The regional land and water board can look at the land use plan and compare it the proposed development plan and issue permits or refer it for assessment. Presently there is a completed land use plan only in the Gwich'in area of the Northwest Territories. The Sahtu, Tlicho, Dehcho, and Akaitcho regions of the Mackenzie Valley currently don't have a land use plan.
Second is capacity to collect baseline biophysical, social, and cultural data, or to do cumulative effects monitoring by independent or government researchers.
I'm just going to point them out.
Third is capacity to document traditional knowledge.
Fourth is the capacity of the federal government to consider review board decisions and conduct a “consult to modify” process.
That's it, Mr. Chairman. I can get into the details later if I am asked.
Merci.