Yes, your comment about the fact that some measures that may have been made by the previous government make sense is one that I perfectly accept. In fact, I said it in my opening remarks.
The purpose here is not to turn back the clock, unlike what Mr. Berthold was saying, to what existed before. It is actually to look at the act, its intent, what changes were made, which ones make sense and which ones don't make sense in terms of removing protections, and I'm asking this committee to do that.
I think that's a very worthwhile exercise to do. Unlike what Mr. Berthold said, there was no consultation back in 2012. It was slammed into an omnibus bill, along with changes to the Fisheries Act, and the environment act, too.
I think this is a golden opportunity for us to, in an intelligent, consultative way, look at the act as it stands at the moment, and to modernize it to ensure that the proper intent is covered and the proper protections are there.
With respect to streamlining the process, that's a good thing. It should never be an act that is so cumbersome that it takes forever to approve something. Any measures that can be recommended by the committee here would also, I think, be taken into consideration because, yes, we want to make sure, as I said in my opening remarks, that our navigable waters remain navigable, and that they're secure. In some cases, we may want to do an environmental assessment when an obstruction is put in place, but overall we'd like to make the processes as streamlined as possible.
We would welcome your input with respect to that.