Natural Resources committee  We continue to work with our Justice colleagues and colleagues at Aboriginal Affairs on developments and any new jurisprudence in terms of court cases, what it may mean to our federal approach for aboriginal consultations, and whether or not we need to adjust our process going fo

Natural Resources committee  The memorandum of understanding that we've developed with British Columbia for substitution is pretty explicit in terms of our roles and responsibilities, the provincial role, and helping us to meet our consultation obligations going forward. There is a public MOU outlining our

Natural Resources committee  Yes, it's public.

Natural Resources committee  Again, I'm not an expert on the Lobbying Act and the rules and requirements under it, but my understanding is there are specific requirements to report specific meetings with designated office holders. Not all staff within the MPMO would be a designated office holder, so those me

Natural Resources committee  Yes, it does.

Natural Resources committee  I can't precisely remember a specific conversation at the deputy table about that, but I do remember a number of conversations with Justice colleagues, and other federal departments and agencies in the course of the development of the proposals and the legislation, about rules an

Natural Resources committee  I'm not a justice expert, so I would hate to answer on this.

Natural Resources committee  I can say in terms of developing the new tools and approaches that were introduced as part of the legislative package that we were confident, and our justice lawyers were confident, that we were within our rights in what we could do under federal law and legislation.

Natural Resources committee  In terms of consultation responsibilities, we aren't talking about delegating our duty to consult to provinces. Our duty to consult aboriginal groups isn't entrenched within those individual pieces of legislation and regulation. It's a constitutional regulation. Despite the cha

Natural Resources committee  You are correct about the long history of work between the federal and provincial governments to address and work collaboratively and jointly on these issues. Those conversations have continued right up to the last energy and mines ministers meeting last fall, in terms of the com

Natural Resources committee  You're correct about the MPMO looking to take a balanced approach to issues. It's very important in terms of our agenda going forward that we can demonstrate to stakeholders that it's not just about efficiency, but that we are making a concerted effort to improve the effectivenes

Natural Resources committee  Most of the work we're doing in terms of developing our performance metrics is within our government departments and agencies. We're really working with our colleagues at Environment Canada and other departments to identify, for example, the best approach and best path forward to

Natural Resources committee  Typically, in any individual project we'll have meetings with project proponents early before any project application is submitted. That would entail meetings in bringing together the relevant federal regulatory departments and agencies to participate in those discussions. MPMO i

Natural Resources committee  That is correct.

Natural Resources committee  We have regular ongoing meetings with our provincial government colleagues, both on individual projects as well as through broader mechanisms and fora that are more formalized.