I want to welcome all of our witnesses here today. Even though it's through video and teleconferencing, it's good to hear the testimony you bring.
I also want to acknowledge the background briefing material we received from our analyst the week before we broke to be in our ridings. I think it reminded us that the changes to the Navigable Waters Protection Act actually started long before they were enshrined in legislation; I think she noted it as being back in 2009.
I also recognize that a number of you have appeared before this committee two or three times to share your thoughts, your concerns, and perhaps your recommendations on how this legislation needs to be changed.
I have in my hand an article that was published in The Hill Times on September 14, with the headline “Leave Navigation Protection Act 'as is,' say municipalities”. That article sparked quite a lively debate here in committee and in the media, as both the parliamentary secretary, Kate Young, and a departmental official indicated that the study would be done and a report would be tabled in early 2017, even before the committee had decided to undertake this study.
We know that undertaking this study is in the minister's mandate letter and that the letter is pretty clear about restoring the protections that were changed in 2014. We know that there is a view to do this in early 2017.
I agree with the headline of that article, which says to leave the Navigation Protection Act as is. I think there was a lot of good work done to get that act to where it is so that it could remove the barriers that many municipalities were facing when dealing with the issues they have to deal with, in rural Canada especially. We know that there is ministerial discretion built into the act whereby waterways can be added or removed, if a municipality applies to have that done.
Because I agree with the headline in this article and believe that we got it right, I am going to offer the rest of my time to my colleagues across the table. Most of them are new to this committee, and it's obvious that they are the driving force behind this study, so I'm going to offer them the rest of my time to ask questions of the municipalities.