Environment committee  I would say there could be a provision in CEAA which basically states that where the Minister of the Environment determines that a project is of national significance, he or she may establish a panel review to review that project. There are some similar sorts of provisions in CE

Environment committee  Right.

Environment committee  Remind me what the date of that was.

Environment committee  At that time, I was executive director of the Sierra Club. That's correct.

Environment committee  That's correct.

Environment committee  Right.

Environment committee  That's correct, yes.

Environment committee  My understanding is that, as in Canada, most environmental assessment activity is actually undertaken at the state level--the provincial level in Canada--so the states have the primary authority and the federal Government of Australia does not get involved so much in environmenta

Environment committee  Yes. Well, I'm not aware of any list that has been prepared. Most of this stuff is based on personal experience. I don't think any statistical summary has been presented. Sometimes it's the case that a project will be subject to a comprehensive study because of its size, and th

Environment committee  Yes, certainly.

Environment committee  Yes. I think in submissions made by the Sierra Club, certainly, when I was the executive director there a few years ago, we did an analysis of the changes made in the 2009 budget, which basically removed the Navigable Waters Protection Act as a trigger. That had a number of impor

Environment committee  What I can provide is the analysis that was done by Sierra Club and with Ecojustice for last year's budget.

Environment committee  They should not be exempt from environmental assessment merely because they're infrastructure projects. What sort of infrastructure project are we talking about? If we're talking about siting a sewage treatment plant on a wetland, that should be assessed because it may have sig

Environment committee  Well, there have been a number.... I don't think the Minister of the Environment should have that authority. I think the approach the government should take should be the approach stated by the Supreme Court in Red Chris, which is that the project is the project as stated by the

Environment committee  Yes, I think that's right.