Environment committee  I would just make the point that, under the Convention on Biological Diversity that we signed in 1992, we do have to protect species and populations in situ. That's the wording in that convention. That's just appealing to higher authority, but it's there.

Environment committee  God forbid, no.

Environment committee  The socio-economic analysis is done by social scientists, yes.

Environment committee  In my brief and my notes, we did make the point that it's not efficiency but getting it right that's the most important part, and that a lot of these things are slowed down probably not because of people having to do more work, but because people are sitting on them for other rea

Environment committee  Could I call on my colleague, Dr. Whitton, to answer that?

Environment committee  Thanks. She has some experience on COSEWIC.

Environment committee  Our deliberations were done in a background where we knew that regulatory impact assessment statements were going to be made any time a regulation, such as a listing or a regulation under critical habitat identification off a federal land, etc., was going to be made. So we didn't

Environment committee  How many paragraphs do you get to change?

Environment committee  It's a work in progress. I'm going to pass.

Environment committee  I can't answer the entire question. Canada was the first major industrialized country to ratify the Convention on Biological Diversity, in 1992, and SARA flows directly from that. There were island states—the Marshall Islands—and Monaco, very small countries, and then we ratifie

Environment committee  I think our brief suggests that recovery strategies have scientific oversight, so that the scientific components of that strategy meet the criteria of science. That would be peer-reviewed. The recovery team would sign off on that recovery strategy, and then the government would h

Environment committee  That's fine. I don't think SCOSAR has suggested that listing be scientific, so I'm not quite sure where you're coming from. The assessment is made by COSEWIC. That is the predictive or observational side of it. That's the white box at the top that it then goes into. What we're

Environment committee  I'd like to answer quickly and then let Professor Findlay have a word.

Environment committee  We shouldn't protect wildlife if the data suggest otherwise...? No, I didn't say that. I did say something that has some of the same words. I said it is unhelpful to suggest to Canadians that a certain wildlife species will be protected and recovered if the data suggest that what

Environment committee  I could speak to the first part of that question. Our recommendation is for a body that might look something like COSEWIC--or it might look like something else. There is something called the Challenge Advisory Panel that deals with toxins, which works in an advisory capacity but