Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, honourable members, for the invitation to appear before this committee to make a presentation, and perhaps more importantly, to respond to any questions that any of the honourable members may have.
It's always a delight for me to come back to this part of the world. I think it's a magnificent part of the world, with magnificent people.
My involvement with this whole issue was that in 2007 and 2008 I had the honour of being appointed by Minister Chuck Strahl as a special representative to examine the regulatory systems in the north—that included all three territories—to see if there were improvements that could be made to make the regulatory system more effective.
I looked at all three territories, although I have to say, and I think it will become obvious from the discussion, that the focus of my review was on the Northwest Territories, particularly the Mackenzie Valley portion south of the Inuvialuit area.
I reported to the minister in July of 2008. I'm sure you all have the report, or have taken a look at it if you've not had a chance to read it, called “Road to Improvement”. A number of recommendations were contained within the document. The most important of them, for today's purpose, were the restructuring recommendations. We can review those in detail in a few moments.
There were also 22 other recommendations that covered all three of the territories involved in specific issues—for instance, the opening of a major projects management office north of 60, as there is one south of 60. I think that has already been implemented.
The restructuring recommendation that I made was basically based on a couple of themes.
First, local involvement in decision-making in terms of resource development is extremely important, but it should be at the right stage of the process. My assertion is that it should be at the land use planning stage. Then the regulatory system should kick in, in what I would call a body that has more expertise dealing with issues that normally come before resource regulatory bodies. That would be the environmental component, the societal component, the economic component, the engineering component, the public safety component, and the like.
That's a much different task, and at that point obviously there would be, or there may be, local interventions to deal with those issues. They wouldn't deal with the overall picture of what should be in a land use plan.
Following my presentation of that document in July, I think, of 2008, I appeared before this very committee in Ottawa in July of 2009. Of course there's a record of it available for anybody who wants to read it. I think Mr. Bevington would have been the only member from this committee today who was there at that time.
I have had since that time no involvement in this file at all. I have watched it with of course great interest, and have talked to various people along the way, but I've had no professional involvement.
Those are my opening remarks. Thank you.