Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  Timelines are helpful and bring a rigour to the process. There are certainly opportunities within those timelines for federal officials to request new information. That's two years of government time, or one year under a comprehensive study, not the whole time. But I think timeli

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  Yes.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  I'm not exactly sure what dollar figure I would attach to the actual cost of bringing it forward. I would say that for junior mining companies, inefficiencies in that process can cost them the project completely. That's why timeliness and predictability are important to smaller c

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  Yes. Actually, this is a feature that you'll find at the provincial level. In B.C., for example, environmental assessments come with conditions—in some cases, many conditions. This is an example of the federal government catching up to the provinces and bringing forward this atta

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  Well, we often look to Australia as a principal competitor of ours, and they've been able to complete environmental assessments in as little as six months to a year, or sometimes a year and a half. This brings Canada more in line with Australia, which is obviously something we we

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  As I and other witnesses have said—including witnesses earlier this evening—I don't believe that these changes in any way.... It's all about process. It has nothing to do with the quality of environmental assessment. On the extent to which there are measures in here that you coul

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  In the history of federal-provincial assessment, there has only been one mining project on which the two governments disagreed. In every other case, both assessments came to the exact same conclusion, which begs the question as to whether it's really necessary to have two reviews

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  —either the province or the federal government, to undertake it.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  What are the costs to each province and territory? No, I can't say that I'm aware of that. I don't understand the purpose of the question either.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  Yes, and I think our provincial and federal governments can come to an understanding on whether, for example, the Quebec environmental assessment system, le BAPE, which is considered to be one of the strongest in the country, can cover off assessments of mining projects.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  The Auditor General, in her 2008 review of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, concluded that the government was not able to demonstrate that the screening level was reviewed and had provided Canadians with any environmental benefit. That was largely the impetus behind the

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  The problem is, I am not quite sure I understand the question. We did participate in the standing committee's review of the act.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  We have participated and made our views known with respect to CEAA for as long as I can remember—for as long as I have been working at the Mining Association of Canada.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  You asked me that already, and I said yes. With the replacement, I think this is a better bill.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  It's not so. If you read our January briefing, we actually—