Environment committee  Thank you. Chairperson, committee members, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the opportunity to present this brief on behalf of the Province of Saskatchewan. My name is Mark Wittrup, and I'm the assistant deputy minister, environmental protection and audit. I bring over 25 y

Environment committee  Those provisions actually exist right now. The problem is that the substitution that is envisioned is really substituting the provincial process with the CEAA process, so there are no savings in terms of time or process involved in that discussion. So we haven't gone that way b

Environment committee  It's the assessment itself, absent the process, that.... So we would undertake an environmental assessment through our process, and that could be used as a substitute for the federal environmental assessment if that were deemed. And really, because we have equivalent...we look

Environment committee  An example would be with the uranium mines in northern Saskatchewan. There are many instances where the provincial process would not have indicated that an environmental assessment was required, given that the facilities already existed and had management systems in place, licenc

Environment committee  Correct.

Environment committee  Just anecdotally in talking with companies and from my own experience, the discussion that goes on within these companies is whether or not it is worth embarking on a two- or three-year project for upgrades. Because of the time, amount, and the human resources required to move so

Environment committee  I'll speak to the Saskatchewan example. We've been able to work with the process in the province so that it gets a fulsome review. Yet we've brought the timelines down so that a full-sized potash mine, for instance, can get its environmental approvals within seven to ten months.

Environment committee  No, I'm not familiar with any that occurred in Saskatchewan.

Environment committee  First of all, public consultations are a very important part of the whole environmental assessment. But I would argue that the environmental assessment process per se is only a small part of developing the social license. A big part of that responsibility rests with the proponent

Environment committee  Oh, no, it's part of it. It's all part of the dynamic that goes on, and it's a very important one. In fact, I would argue that given the state of regulation right now, most projects in the country could be approved without consultation. The reason we have environmental assessment

Environment committee  No, we don't censor.

Environment committee  The only exception would be if there were a very small technological item that needed to be kept secret for proprietary reasons, and that would be decided by the minister.

Environment committee  Absolutely, but only a very small component.

Environment committee  To go back to your original question, with respect to screening-level assessments, they tend to be of a relatively minor nature. To be quite honest, some of the triggers, especially within an existing industrial site, are laughable. Generally, though, on the screening level, I

Environment committee  The answer is yes, it is part of the process. In fact, it is part of any decision that we make that might impact on traditional rights in the province, so the answer is yes. We're currently in discussions with the CEAA in order to try to align those as closely as possible to see