Industry Committee on Oct. 20th, 2022

[Dale Austin]

Just very quickly, the green economy is important not only in the Prairies but also across the country. The more carbon we can remove from our economy, the more global opportunities will be available to us.

In terms of transportation, we're a trading nation. We need to be able to move our goods to market as quickly as possible. We need to have the right regulatory and policy frameworks in place to make sure that it can happen. Any time we can look with a fresh eye on all of the components of what moving goods to market in a green economy might look like, I think that's beneficial.

[Andy Fillmore, Liberal, Halifax, NS]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Joël Lightbound]

Thank you very much.

Given that we had a bit of a change of schedule, we have a little more time. We've concluded our formal round of questions, but if anyone has any more questions, I will cede the floor to them.

Yes, Mr. Perkins.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the opportunity to ask a few questions.

My questions will all be directed to Mr. Austin.

Mr. Austin, when your company wants to or needs to alter or develop a new site for mining or the production of uranium, does it, and do you, consult with stakeholders before doing that?

[Dale Austin]

Yes. For the most part, we would consult in particular with our partner communities in northern Saskatchewan, but with other interested parties as well.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Could you just inform the committee about what types of stakeholders you would be talking to?

[Dale Austin]

As I said, it most likely would be with our indigenous community. We would talk to the regulator, both provincial and federal, and an open consultation process goes along with that sort of regulatory siting process.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

You'd be dealing with all three levels of government, as well, in that consultation process.

[Dale Austin]

Yes, that is correct.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Of course, part of that is what you would naturally want to do to be a good corporate citizen to move the project forward. I presume, particularly with first nations, that some of that is in compliance with the duty to consult rulings of the courts.

[Dale Austin]

Yes, it is part of the duty to consult, but we were engaged in discussions and consultations with our indigenous partners before it became part of the law. It is part of how we do business in northern Saskatchewan.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Is any of that required already by the various regulators you have to deal with?

[Dale Austin]

I wouldn't say it's required. It is certainly required from a company perspective. As part of the regulatory process, there is an opportunity for any engaged group to participate in that regulatory process, which is run by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

How long would the consultation that your company initiates take? It probably depends on the project.

[Dale Austin]

It's hard to put a hard number on it. We would engage in discussions and consultations as long as they were required to make sure that our partner communities, in particular, are comfortable with the project that we are putting forward.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Has the bill that my colleague Mr. Kram referred to earlier—known most publicly as Bill C-69—lengthened the process and increased the number of hurdles your company has to go through?

[Dale Austin]

We don't know yet. We have not attempted to put a project through the impact assessment process, so it is hard for us to comment. We are very carefully watching other companies that are making their way through the process to see if the timelines are met, but from Cameco's perspective, I can't say.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Because of all that, I'm still trying to grapple with the issue of whether or not this bill does anything that you're not already doing. If it does, it adds yet another layer of complexity to what companies in your situation in the Prairies are already doing. It seems to me to be a bureaucratization, perhaps, of something that any good and reasonable company needs to do these days to get any project going forward.

I don't see how adding another layer of a federal government-directed process on top of everything else you're doing does anything but slow down our ability to develop projects. At the end of the day, it may even deter capital from flowing to projects in western Canada because of that added bureaucracy.

[Dale Austin]

Perhaps I misinterpreted the bill. I saw this as a time-limited process to develop a framework for a green economy in the Prairies and that it would not add a significant amount of bureaucratic oversight, but I will take another look at the bill.

As I said earlier, any time the relevant players can get together to discuss a framework for developing a green economy, it's probably worthwhile to think about what the outcome is and whether or not the interested parties are looking to achieve similar objectives. I will take a closer look at the bill, but my understanding was that it's very time-limited. We'd develop a framework, and then from there, we would look at what that framework proposed and determine how it would fit into the process that we engage in when we're looking at new projects.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Subclauses 3(2) and 3(3) outline a very specific process and I do not see—although I could be wrong—that there are any time limits placed on it in the bill. If there aren't, presumably that's something you think should be added to the bill, perhaps at committee stage, if it's not there.

[Dale Austin]

I would think so. When I said that, I was looking at subclause 4(1), which reads, “Within 18 months after the day on which this Act comes into force, the Minister must prepare a report”. That was the time limit that I was considering in terms of the time-limited nature of this.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Would you see this as an additional consultation process, or would it substitute what you're already doing?

[Dale Austin]

I would see this as an additional consultation process to what we're already doing.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Could that potentially add another 18 months to any project, then?

[Dale Austin]

No, not necessarily. I wouldn't see this as adding to any project timeline. We would be concurrently looking at projects while this bill or the framework was being developed, so I don't see this as cumulative. I would certainly see it as concurrent timing in terms of whatever it is we might be doing with a new project and being participants in the consultation and development of a framework.