Based on what I know, yes, you're absolutely right. From my experience with the mine approval process, a lot of companies do come in with the idea that this can be done in probably six months or in that order. This company didn't come in with that understanding. It knew it would take some time. It needed time to do its studies and so on. A lot of the studies that are done probably have to take at least a one-year cycle. It got out very early.
It has also been listening to what we've been saying, and it got out very early to engage the public and to engage first nations, and things of that nature. This is one of those things where, when you do that, especially when you engage the public, when you introduce the fact that you're looking at developing a mine, the public wants all the answers up front.
Of course, if you're out that early, you're just dealing with a concept more than anything else. It has been involved in this for probably a couple of years now as far as actually dealing with the public and explaining what its plans are and working on developing the terms of reference for its environmental impact assessment, and so on. That's done.
My understanding is that the way it's working, I guess the obvious overlap or duplication could be with the EIAs, the federal EIA and the provincial EIA, and that seems to be geared to the size of the project, and also the potential impact on the federal responsibilities such as fisheries, and so on.
I know that in the past we have worked to harmonize those two so that there is only one EIA, the federal government working with our provincial government environment department to ensure that there is no overlap and duplication, and I believe that's what's happening in this particular instance. I do believe they are involved with the major projects office, but I haven't been directly involved with that, so I don't know any of the specifics with regard to whether they've taken appropriate steps to streamline or not. Based on past history, that is the critical thing, the two EIAs.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans—and you've probably heard this many times—tends to be a bit of a sticking point from time to time as far as that goes, and it takes its mandate very seriously. We've had a couple of instances where we really questioned where it's coming from, and it has caused delays and does introduce elements of the unknown, I guess, for development of properties.