Absolutely, thank you.
Picking up on what Mr. Barry said, I think one of the key things, not to put too fine a point on it, is that until this fall, the Nunavut Water Board had two outstanding vacancies on the board that exceeded 700 days. That's almost two years of vacancy. Given the staggered terms of board member appointments, every three years or so the board stands a chance of losing quorum completely and being unable to do its business for a period of time if there's a delay in appointments. Board appointments are always an issue.
It used to be as well, until last week, that funding of the board was an issue. I think this committee has probably heard repeatedly and often that the board had been underfunded. A considerable amount of funding has now been secured. Going forward the expectation is that some of that underfunding over the last 10 years will now be addressed. The board is optimistic that the additional funding will certainly support capacity.
When we're talking about capacity in an integrated regulatory process, we're not only talking about the capacity of the board in terms of board member appointments and having sufficient funding capacity. We're also talking about the limits of capacity on the other participants in the integrated regulatory process.
For example, the board is very much reliant on the technical information and inputs provided by agencies like Environment Canada, the Government of Nunavut's Department of Environment, and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. In the last year and a bit the board has seen that there are no technical review comments coming in from some of the parties. They've been identifying the fact that they are at capacity and don't have the human resources, or the financial resources in some cases, to travel to public hearings, public meetings, pre-hearing conferences, or technical meetings. The board is starting to see the participants requesting that there not be in-person public meetings and that the meetings be by teleconference.
I think you can understand and appreciate that in a territory that is so vast, and where travel distances are very expensive, as soon as we start to see capacity difficulties with the Inuit organizations and the government participants, the board's evidentiary record becomes lessened and the participation and the presentation before the community that is directly affected by water licensing decisions becomes limited. When that happens it brings the integrity of the whole regulatory process into question.