Thank you.
As the Minister noted last week in his testimony before the committee, regulatory improvement has long been identified as a precondition for long-term growth in the north and a more stable and attractive investment climate from which all northerners can benefit.
The genesis of the regulatory improvement initiative can be found in a number of reports and recommendations. Going back to 2005, there are recommendations from the Auditor General's report. There is the tripartite group's joint examination project. There is Neil McCrank's report, “Road To Improvement” in 2008. This resulted in the action plan of 2010, which was later expanded in 2012. This committee, I believe, also treated a key component of that action plan, which was C-47. It received royal assent in June of 2013.
I think the committee is probably comfortable with the objectives and principles as they were explained last week during the appearances. I will focus on parts 2 to 4 of the bill in front of us today. I will say that there are shared themes across these parts. It's my intent to provide further detail as the specific elements once I get to the final part of the bill, which is part 4, Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act.
In general, the proposed amendments achieve three objectives. They introduce beginning-to-end time limits on decision-making, including ministerial decision-making for land and water permits and licenses. They reduce the regulatory burden. And they introduce a suite of enhancements to environmental protections. The proposed amendments do not change the existing environmental assessment or water licensing processes.
Part 2 of the bill respects the Territorial Lands Act. Upon devolution, the scope of this legislation will be limited to federal lands. The proposed amendments to the Territorial Lands Act are focused on enhancing environmental protection through increased and modernized fines and the introduction of an administrative monetary penalty regime, which is a civil penalty regime. The amendments to the Territorial Lands Act will come into force on royal assent; however, the administrative and monetary penalty regime will only be operational once regulations are in place.
Part 3 of the bill, and the second component of the regulatory improvement initiative, is the Northwest Territories Waters Act. It is important to note that this act will be repealed by Canada and mirrored by the Government of the Northwest Territories upon devolution. Large components of this act will then be imported into the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act to enable the continued issuance of water licenses on federal lands post-devolution.
The amendments to the Northwest Territories Waters Act would introduce beginning-to-end time limits on water licences: nine months for a board to issue its decision, 45 days for a minister to make a decision, and then a potential extension of an additional 45 days. It's being introduced as some amendments to address regulatory burdens. It would allow the water board to issue life-of-water licences. Currently those licenses are limited to 25 years. It would introduce regulation making authority for cost recovery. With respect to enhanced environmental protections, it would, like the Territorial Lands Act, increase and modernize fines and introduce an administrative monetary penalty regime.
The existing Northwest Territories Water Board would be renamed the Inuvialuit Water Board, reflective of its geographic scope and location, and the membership would be reduced from nine members to five.
This brings me to part 4 of the bill, the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act. The Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act would also introduce beginning-to-end time limits. This would be for both water licenses, as those elements would be imported into the act post-devolution when the waters act is imported, and for environmental assessments: 12 months for an environmental assessment without a hearing, 21 months for an environmental assessment with a hearing, and 24 months for an environmental impact review or a joint panel review.
The bill would also introduce elements such as cost recovery and a regulation making authority for cost recovery. It would enable the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board to establish a public registry. That board currently has a registry but it has no legislative source for that registry so introducing this would give it greater clarity in terms of what it can and cannot post on its site.
With respect to the environmental protections, the MVRMA would also have amendments introduced to it to introduce an administrative monetary penalty scheme. This scheme would see fines for infractions by individuals of up to $25,000, and by organizations of up to $100,000.
It would introduce a development certificate, which would be one place for all terms and conditions that a proponent must follow in order for a project to proceed to be published. These development certificates would be enforceable. That is, an administrative monetary penalty scheme could be applied to an infraction or a failure to meet the terms and conditions of a development certificate.
Like the Territorial Lands Act and the waters act, fines would also be increased for infractions related to land. The fines would be increased from $15,000 to $100,000 for a first offence, and there would be an introduction of a second offence with a maximum fine of $200,000.
For water infractions, the maximum fine would be increased to $250,000 for a first offence, and $500,000 for a second offence.
With respect to reducing the regulatory burden, the amendments to the MVRMA would restructure the land and water boards, consolidating the existing four boards into one, with an eleven-member board.
It's important to note that the existing mandate of the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board would not change as a result of these amendments.
There are varying coming-into-force dates for the amendments to the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act. The varying dates have been established to allow for orderly transition to a restructured Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board and the introduction of new concepts such as an administrative monetary penalty and development certificates.
Another element that is being introduced to the act is the regulation-making authority with respect to aboriginal consultation. This is something that responds to comments from industry, aboriginal groups, government, and boards. It would be an opportunity to put in place regulations that would address the procedural requirements of consultation.
I'll leave it there in terms of the scope of the amendments. What I will say is that as a result of the consultations on this part of the bill, we have made a number of accommodations and changes to the bill to respond to comments received. I'd be happy to speak to those during the question period.
Thank you.