Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  Yes, it does happen under law. What this provision does, which I think is even smarter, is it allows governments to go in early, even independent of a project, and scope out the carrying capacity from an environmental and even a social perspective for a region before development takes place.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  Individual projects will be asked to account for cumulative impacts. What I'm saying is that there's a limitation to what an individual company can do. It's governments, actually, that have the responsibility to plan forward and that have the capacity to think outside the box of an individual project.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  Well, I think one can have both.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  With respect to fisheries, I'll elaborate a little on where our concerns lie. When you're building a mine on a particular mine site, you're also governed by section 36 of the Fisheries Act, which governs what you're allowed to deposit. Strictly speaking, there's an absolute prohibition on depositing a deleterious substance in any water body.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  Excuse me, but are you talking about changes that affect the National Energy Board?

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  As I said earlier, it will depend entirely on the quality of the implementation of the legislation. If the evaluation process for a mine, be it in Quebec, Alberta or British Columbia, is well done, if our member companies do their work properly and develop good relations with the communities, including the aboriginal communities, there will be no conflict.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  Honestly, as that part of the bill does not affect our members, we did not analyze it. So I have no comments to make on that. I think that you put the question to Mr. Collyer, from...

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  He would be in a better position to answer you.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  I really have no comment to make, because I have not examined this aspect of the bill.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  Yes, though I'd point out that we're not completely pleased. We don't completely understand what's being done to the Fisheries Act. On a point of clarification, the assumption seems to be that we are delighted with every aspect of it. My colleague has indicated there are some areas where he wishes the government had gone further, and we have certain concerns with what's been done with the Fisheries Act.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  On CEAA, it's a masterful piece of work.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  One of the most dramatic in the Northwest Territories has been with respect to post-secondary enrollment. It has gone up, I think two orders of magnitude, among aboriginal young people over the past decade, as a result of the diamond mines, as Mr. Bevington would know. That's a transformative change when you see that level of increase.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  I would say the current system creates lots of problems, and there's a lot of uncertainty on the landscape. We face litigation from environmental groups and first nations currently. I would suggest—

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  No. I would suggest that the problems that have existed with the Environmental Assessment Act have to do with the lack of clarity around process. A better-run process, if implemented well—and I'll grant you that this will have to be implemented well, and I'm not going to say that the federal government—

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  —has consistently implemented things well, but if they implement these processes well under the new legislation, it should make things better on the ground. It may actually reduce litigation and conflict—