Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Sure, absolutely. I'll try to be brief, because that is a complex question. Environment Canada, like all departments, is managed in result areas. So we have a specific result area that encompasses the Mackenzie gas project office. That is the government's focal point for work on the pipeline.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In the way we have participated and will continue to participate in environmental assessment, we have two real roles. We regulate certain activities, such as the disposal at sea, or activities in the migratory bird sanctuary. We also provide expert advice to whatever body is doing the evaluations.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, the scientists in our department do.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. The way the environmental assessment legislation works, we provide expert testimony advice into the process on the science that we have. We don't have regulatory authorities around structures and permafrost. Instead, we provide the science, what we know about frost conditions.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We're responsible for some of the areas that have been invested in, mainly the contaminated sites, for mediation money. That would be our principal one but not holistically the money that has gone into sustainable development.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Sorry, I'm late looking into that. There were some new moneys for that piece of sustainable development legislation. Specifically, we are administrators of that, but we can get back to you on the Federal Sustainable Development Act and the funding indicators that have gone with that.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, we do.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The way contaminated sites remediation works, Environment Canada has a secretariat that provides expert advice on contaminated sites remediation, but the departments that are responsible for or that own those sites are actually ultimately responsible for their cleanup. So they're called the custodial departments.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We're not the department that administers that piece of legislation, but we certainly do have regulatory responsibilities and program responsibilities in those waters. We have resources in environmental emergency response and weather forecasting in that area. Those would probably be the principal ones that we would apply there, but we don't physically administer that piece of legislation, to my knowledge.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I am going to try to answer, but I am going to speak in English to make sure I am understood.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  First, in terms of coordination, we do things as a government to try to make sure that we're coordinated in the north. At the deputy minister and assistant deputy minister levels, we do have committees that exist only to have departments come to them and develop joint actions and joint policies for the north.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I can endeavour to get back to you with a more comprehensive answer, but that would be mainly a Department of Indian and Northern Affairs and territorial government responsibility. There's little that Environment Canada would do in that area.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm not aware of any replies that we've made. But if the project is formally proposed, it will have to undergo an environmental assessment.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to thank you for the invitation and the opportunity to appear before your committee and to speak briefly on the subject of northern economic development from an environmental perspective. Environment Canada has a mandate to protect the environment, conserve Canada's natural heritage, and provide weather and environmental prediction to keep Canadians informed and safe.

Transport committee  We have an environmental assessment program at the federal level, and at the territorial level as well. Different departments have different roles they would play in an environmental assessment that would happen there. But Environment Canada certainly has resources that it puts toward understanding both the environmental impacts that a project might have, and understanding and giving any regulatory approvals that might go with that project.