Environment committee  The amendments in July 2010 dealt with a number of aspects principally related to the comprehensive study process. The amendments removed the step in the process where the minister decided on the track, whether it would be a comprehensive study or a review panel. That step was el

Environment committee  There are maybe a couple we can speak to. Australia has a somewhat similar regime. Most countries have environmental assessment legislation. In Australia's case, they have the same kind of dynamics we have here in Canada. They have the federal level of government and, in their

Environment committee  Mr. Chair, we provided earlier this week summaries of a number of assessments that had been completed dating back to the passage of the act in 1995, and attached to that was a summary table. We noticed that due to some discrepancies in the way in which we were reporting the infor

Environment committee  There are also situations where National Defence may be proposing a project. The other triggers involve the provision of land or a regulatory decision.

Environment committee  For land triggers, National Defence could be one of the large landholders. In fact, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development administers lands on reserve. When there are projects on reserve, they are required to authorize them. Those would be two examples.

Environment committee  A good example I would cite deals with two of the commercial crowns—the Business Development Bank of Canada and the Farm Credit Corporation.They provide commercial funding to proponents to carry out projects, so they are required to do assessments every time they provide funding

Environment committee  That's correct.

Environment committee  There are expansions of parking lots, small expansions to buildings, etc. The exclusion list regulation identifies categories of projects and then puts thresholds on those. If they're below the threshold, they would be excluded. A building greater than 500 square metres would req

Environment committee  I think I can answer that, Elaine. In the quality assurance study that was done, which Ms. Feldman referred to, we also looked at the overall timeframe of those screenings. The median duration over the three years, I think, was about 50 days. Now whether that included people wo

Environment committee  Per project.

Natural Resources committee  I agree.

Natural Resources committee  It's typically 12 months to 14 months.

Natural Resources committee  No, we're in the same ballpark.

Natural Resources committee  The act has a requirement for a pause of 30 days once there's a notice of commencement. We have an Internet site registry where all projects are identified and which the public can access. There's a 30-day period between a notice of commencement and a decision. The shortest timef

Natural Resources committee  At least.