Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I believe it took approximately 10 years.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's a little beyond my day-to-day job to comment on the acceptability of the legislative process itself. I can say that given our experience of implementing environmental assessment in Nunavut, within our role in the process we hope to provide a very clear understanding of what is likely to work and what might make the job more challenging or what might not lead to the efficiencies that we want to be put in place.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Maybe I'll take a shot at answering. Our board was invited to the legislative working group in approximately 2007. I can't really detail the work that was done prior to that although I know there was considerable work done by the Government of Nunavut, the Government of Canada, and Nunavut Tunngavik.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's a bit more than I can respond to, to be honest.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I presume the Government of Canada was leading the working groups, so it would be the Government of Canada that could respond to that.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll take a stab at answering again. We always felt our comments were given consideration. However, given that our board members would be the ones implementing it, I think our understanding of how things might work on the ground was often a little different from that of the people actually drafting the legislation.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I've heard the same quote. That's correct.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Elizabeth. I think we're generally supportive of NTI's amendments, as we've stated in our brief, with two minor exceptions. On the case for the Mary River project in particular, I think the way we tend to explain it is that we went through a lengthy process, a consensus building process, and got to a decision, which was a very challenging decision for the board and for the territory to make about this development and about the conditions by which it should be developed.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you very much. Yes, we've kept them informed through working with the legislative working group for a number of years. All the parties have been around the table. They invited submissions from our board. Most of what is in our brief has been brought up through the course of the development of the legislation.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We received them as of yesterday and have given them a preliminary review.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think we could follow up with a written response. That would be appropriate and would give us a little more time to absorb and properly respond, if that's okay.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We'd be happy to.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Elizabeth. I'll try to keep it as concise as possible. On participant funding, if you are a community group or an affected individual in most any place in Canada, and if an environmental assessment is being conducted by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, the National Energy Board, or the Nuclear Safety Commission, you can apply for a set pool of participant funding to allow you to properly prepare for and make representations to the panel or the environmental assessment board, as the case may be.