Environment committee  We suggest that the stewardship or conservation agreements are flexible. They can deal with the ecosystem, they can include socio-economics, they can deal with the short and long terms, and they can deal with multi-species. So they're flexible. They can do all of these things and

Environment committee  Put in place a conservation agreement as an authorization for the activities, including research and mitigation measures, and then let them be in place for a significant period of time related to the life of the species and of the project.

Environment committee  Fundamentally we think it's sound, but there are some major critical gaps—not big wording gaps, but they're critical gaps that are preventing it from being implemented efficiently and leaving it not workable for long-term industrial activity in the country.

Environment committee  Yes.

Environment committee  Absolutely.

Environment committee  I wouldn't want to comment on the Quebec situation, but I can speak generally. We do have a concern that on a project, no matter where it is or what kind of industry it is, you can go through a very thorough and exhaustive environmental assessment and the studies and the regula

Environment committee  Yes, it would be, you're right. We already are doing, and I know other companies do, more research than they would otherwise have been doing once we have an idea that a species that's in the realm of our operation might be at risk. I guess you can think of the carrot and the st

Environment committee  Well, I guess there are two situations. The bigger concern right now is the existing system. We have all these existing projects, many of which have been built and licensed in later years, that have full-scale environmental assessments, full-scale consultation and habitat reviews

Environment committee  No.

Environment committee  DFO would be the one dealing with this. DFO would be reasonable in the sense that they wouldn't say, “Well, okay, now legally you're not in compliance, so you have to shut everything down.”

Environment committee  Technically, we are legally not in compliance in that situation. There isn't a good mechanism to get us in compliance, because all you have are these three-year permits. We may look at doing something, but the permit that would put us back in compliance is only good for three yea

Environment committee  We recognize that if there's going to be a longer-term permit, let's say, related to the life of the species or the life of the facility, as the environment changes, as the population of that species changes--gets better or gets worse--as new information and new technologies arri

Environment committee  I think the amount of consultation will vary from region to region. In the Prairies, in Manitoba, our experience recently is that when recovery strategies and action plans are being developed, there is good consultation. There is a fair bit of consultation. We may not always agre

Environment committee  Our experience with lake sturgeon is exactly what was said about BC Hydro. One point that I think would be useful is that the original drafting of the legislation seems to have been focused more on terrestrial species, so the concept of critical habitat worked more effectively f

Environment committee  It varies by a few percentage points from year to year, but today on an energy basis, 60% or just above 60% of the electrical energy produced in Canada comes from hydro power. There used to be a projection from NRCan that it was going to go down, but in more recent years that has