Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The only thing I would add is that the entire board doesn't do the assessments. There's an executive committee on the board. Ken, I, and one other person, Simon Mason, are on the executive committee. We conduct the assessments on the large projects; our designated offices have their own independent authorities to conduct assessments at the community level on most of the projects.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The Umbrella Final Agreement limits it to three years. That's the constitutionally protected duration. We have a couple of members on a slightly different timeline owing to some delays in their appointments. There's a recommendation in the five-year review. Our biggest risk is a changeover of all the executive committee at one time.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll try to be as brief as possible on that. Natural Resources Canada, Transport Canada, and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans all provide regulatory roles, but in some cases they come in fairly late, or they're hard to reach in assessments. On the northern major projects office, I think it may be helpful to have them as effective participants in our assessments and to have them recognize what is happening in the Yukon.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In relation to some of the information that he identified, such as water quality, water quantity, and other aspects, shutting down a lot of these monitoring stations has had a big impact on proponents. They have to undertake even more studies than in the past in order to get in the door with YESAA.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  If it's okay, I have just a quick response to add to that. Although we haven't had a lot of controversy, when it comes up it's big. The thing is that when we do assessments, we have to assess those particular concerns that are coming forward and determine if they're valid or not, and if they can be mitigated or if they're significant.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. It's a big question. First of all, federal funding normally triggers a CEAA assessment. In the Yukon, it triggers a YESAA assessment. So certain projects are going to go through an assessment even with federal funding, let's say, and even with some of the new initiatives that are out there.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I can give you a short answer. All the timelines are the same. The only difference is that there's a bit of extra time for a federal or territorial decision body to consult with the first nation that is not settled before they issue a decision document. That's the only difference.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We met with Mr. McCrank and gave him an overview of the YESAA process. We were quite pleased with the report that came forward. You asked about the five-year review. I think there will be some changes, but I don't think system-wide changes are going to be coming forward. I think they're going to be fairly minor in nature, with changes to YESAA to maybe catch a few issues but not try to overhaul that system.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  If I may answer...? Thank you. It's a bigger issue that just the placer mining. One the designation on what is a navigable water, but also, another one is the late decision that's made sometimes. I think the Transport Canada issue is just a bigger issue, that is, having them in the process earlier for assessment or anything else so that they identify themselves as a regulator on a particular project.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Oh, sorry. The northern major projects office is different from the major projects office south of 60. We met with them and said that the biggest issue in the Yukon is not the big projects; it's any project where there's uncertainty around the regulators.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We've asked them to consider coordinating the federal roles, with Transport Canada and NRCan, for example, and ensuring that they have more timely input into assessments, no matter if it's a little project or a big project. We think that is a really good role for that entity that's being established under CanNor.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The first nations in the Yukon that do not have settled agreements are still caught in the definition of a first nation under YESAA. Our legislation says we must provide guaranteed opportunities for first nations and so on. When it comes to the assessment process, we do not treat a “settled” first nation any differently from the way we treat an “unsettled” first nation.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think the heavy lifting was done by the negotiators of the Umbrella Final Agreement. We did some of the light lifting, which took a long time after that. Basically, the federal government had the EARPGO guidelines. Also, the CEAA process was in place for a number of years. But you have to remember that CEAA only applied in cases of federal lands or where there was a federal trigger.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The only thing I can say on the five-year review is that it's not our review. It's a review by the three parties: Canada, the first nations, and the territorial government.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I can. There are two reviews happening. One is a very formal review under the Umbrella Final Agreement. It's a five-year review of the entire YESAA process, including the legislation, the regulations, how we're performing, and how each first nation and all the other governments are performing.