Environment committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Steve Burgess. I'm acting vice-president of operations at the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency. With me is Steve Chapman, who is acting director of the panel secretariat group in our organization. I understand that a presentation, or

Environment committee  In fact, Mr. Chairman, it may be that I am the one who should apologize. We had prepared a presentation that I had hoped would have been distributed to committee members before my arrival, and that appears not to have happened. I'll endeavour to have it delivered during the cours

Environment committee  Mr. Chairman, that's a very good question and one that is important to understand. The environmental assessment process is not a project approval process per se, as you've indicated. The purpose of the process is to provide information to federal authorities, or the responsible

Environment committee  That's correct.

Environment committee  Mr. Chapman may be able to give a more complete answer.

Environment committee  The major projects management office isn't part of our agency.

Environment committee  They report to Natural Resources Canada. Their role is to oversee, if you will, and ensure that environmental assessments of major resource projects are conducted in an efficient manner.

Environment committee  I can offer a view. I think the office is not related specifically to oil sands projects but more to the resource sector as a whole--mining, oil and gas, hydroelectric developments, and other forms of energy projects.

Environment committee  Yes. This is a significant challenge, I have to say. The approach we've recommended in our guidance material is that in the absence of specific regulation or policy direction, we feel that it's nonetheless important to consider the greenhouse gas component as one of the environ

Environment committee  Correct, and by governments as well.

Environment committee  I will start by answering your question, and ask Mr. Chapman to add to it perhaps. The joint review panel had looked at the issue of greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. The judge decided there was inadequate justification for the conclusion that the impacts of these two

Environment committee  Strategic assessments are mandatory when the government is putting forward a policy or a plan that may have some environmental impact. Strategic assessments do not apply to the tar sands project.

Environment committee  Oui. Do you want to answer that?

Environment committee  I would like to add something. We can certainly provide you with this information.

Environment committee  That is a very challenging issue. We certainly can't question sometimes the information we're being provided with by proponents.