The risk is that the environmental laws enacted by the provinces and by Parliament will not be respected, that they will be circumvented.
Mr. Lauzon referred to the jurisdictional overlap in Canadian federalism, and it is true, but that overlap does not mean the government can seek to dismiss provincial authority at all costs. With the constitutional division of powers, the provinces are not subordinate to Parliament, as the Supreme Court has repeatedly established. Like Parliament, the provinces have exclusive jurisdiction over certain things. As the bill is written, I do not see an intention to respect the division of powers—and that is the problem.
Joint assessments have been carried out in the past. They are rare, but they have happened. What that approach does is ensure that provinces and first nations are treated as equal partners of the federal government, not as subordinates to a central authority. It is important to take that into account in this bill.