Thank you very much.
I think this is quite interesting, because we've had panels of 12 where they've only had an hour, and then we've had small panels where we've had an hour, so I think we wish that we would have had more time to hear from first nations as well.
Ms. Armstrong, I think you've really put it on the table in saying that we need to take this back and we need to have an agreement. The principle of it is that there has been no discussion on those four issues—decent discussion—to try to find common ground on it. I think that's extremely important.
Mr. Thrall, you've talked about how it's important to mining, and I can tell you that, yes, sometimes mining thinks they're doing the right thing. I come from Elliot Lake. I can tell you that the Occupational Health and Safety Act came about because of people who stood up and said, “This is wrong and we need to find common ground on how to make sure our people are going to be safe.”
That is basically what these communities are doing as well. They're saying that we have to look at the social and the economic impacts of this. If there is an issue with the length of the assessment.... Because from what we can understand, if I remember correctly, YESAB has basically indicated that they had come into a disagreement, maybe, on the timelines.
That's one. I'm sure there may have been some other ones, but on the major ones.... For example, I know that Casino.... We're talking about tailings ponds here. We know what happened in B.C. I can tell you what tailings ponds have done in Elliot Lake as well, and how they had to look at remediation of that part when the mines closed down. I understand that when Casino went forward that there were 400-plus questions that YESAB had to ask in order for that project to move forward.
I think what we are looking at is the fact that the government and the territorial government went to the table and said they were ready to do the review. People put their cards on the table and said, “Here are our amendments and here's how we can try to fix this.” Seventy-three of them out of the 76 were accepted, but the problem is that the other ones came in after the fact with no detail.
I think the people want to work together and want to make sure that business and their communities thrive, and they want to make sure they can protect their environment.
I do have a couple of questions. You've indicated that there are two changes that are of most benefit, that you think would be most beneficial to you. What are your views on policy direction and delegation of authority, which are part of this bill? Is it of little benefit? Is there a lot of benefit? Or do you have a statement on that at all?