Natural Resources Committee on Nov. 18th, 2013

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses.

Further to the projects list, you've identified $650 billion in projects over the next 10 years. I know that it was presented at the mines ministers conference last year, but it was broken out only by provinces and territories, not by actual projects.

Could you provide that precise list to the committee?

[Jim Clarke]

Yes.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Good. Thanks.

Your responsibility is primarily with industry, would you say?

[Jim Clarke]

With engagement, it's on natural resource projects, and our engagement is across the federal system and with other jurisdictions.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

I'm looking at your lobbying record for the last year. We were lobbied 18 times solely by industry, solely by the energy companies. Is that correct?

[Jim Clarke]

That's accurate.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

When it comes to engaging the stakeholders, you only engage the energy and industry stakeholders. Is that correct?

[Terence Hubbard]

MPMO is a focal point, kind of a single window for all stakeholder communities. Obviously, project proponents who are directly impacted in working through these regulatory systems have—

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

How many first nations have you met with?

[Terence Hubbard]

Through the MPMO?

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

What about the AFN? You met with CAP a number of times. Have you—

[Terence Hubbard]

We meet regularly with first nations communities and other stakeholders as well.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Have you met with AFN?

[Terence Hubbard]

Yes, I met with AFN last week, actually. We meet on an ongoing basis. We are a small office in respect of our engagement activities, and we recognize we could do a lot more.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Okay.

Moving on, the deputy minister committee seems to be one of the key elements in greasing the wheels of this system you're proposing. You have a deputy minister committee meeting solving policy issues among departments that have statutory responsibility for different aspects of environmental protection. Is that correct?

[Terence Hubbard]

We have a major projects deputy minister committee that has been established to provide advice and guidance on these issues. It is a whole of government initiative, so having senior leaders—

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

You're taking the statutory responsibility out of the hands—

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Mr. Bevington, would you please give the witness a little bit of time to respond. If you want to ask—

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Mr. Chair, we don't have much time so we have to get through our questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

If you want to ask for follow-up, you're welcome to do that after. There may be a bit of time.

[Terence Hubbard]

The major projects office does not have a legislative mandate. Nothing in the initiative fetters the statutory obligations of any individual department. Most of the conversations we have through this deputy minister committee and other governance structures focus on cross-cutting issues that don't rest within any individual department's mandate or responsibility.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

I'm curious about environment. We have to stand up for the environment here a little bit. I think that's appropriate. You have set time limits on environmental assessment.

Do you consider baseline information gathering part of time limits? Would you assume that if a company is going into a pristine area of wilderness there should be some extensive baseline information development and assessment before projects would fit into the timeframe you're talking about?

[Terence Hubbard]

It's important to understand that the legislative or regulatory timelines that have been put in place are only on federal activities. They don't apply to activities carried out by other levels of government with respect to project proponents.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

So anything on water is a federal responsibility and anything interjurisdictional is a federal responsibility.

[Terence Hubbard]

To clarify again, the timelines are based on having complete information from a project proponent. If a proponent is required to do studies to identify the environmental impacts of its project, the time that's required for the proponent to carry out those activities isn't within the timeframe.