Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  The Canadian Hydropower Association welcomes the new Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. It will reduce federal-provincial overlap and duplication, which costs taxpayers, electricity ratepayers, and project proponents. Bill C-38 reforms will concentrate the federal process on

Environment committee  For the hydro projects often I've had four-year federal regulatory processes to get the authorization, and then there's the construction period.

Environment committee  First of all, it is renewable. Second, there are impacts, such as on fish, but we do have a lot of regulation and measures in Canada that ameliorate the impacts. The best example is that if we affect habitat, then we have to replace that habitat under the Fisheries Act no net

Environment committee  Certainly the environmental assessment process has caused some projects to be delayed. There was one in B.C. that was a bit of an unusual case. There was a provincial override on an earlier licence, which actually sort of goes to the example of needing good environmental assessme

Environment committee  The B.C. provincial government overrode an earlier decision, and a project was cancelled. I believe it was called Kemano. But, certainly, I think what happens is that companies look ahead to decide whether or not they're going to invest in the first place, and even begin the pro

Environment committee  I think they have a different role. Now, I'm really getting out on a limb here--

Environment committee  --but I think there's a role for both. I think government needs to be there to provide firm indications of what needs to be done as an absolute minimum and to set resource allocation decisions—I'm thinking about provincial governments there--but at the same time, companies need t

Environment committee  Yes, and I'll talk about the environmental effects, not the social right now. Another one is reduction in greenhouse gases. When we've had CSRs or there were federal panel reviews, the preparers of the reports had the proponents...and being told, well, you can throw in somethin

Environment committee  Wuskwatim.

Environment committee  I'll try to be quick. Wuskwatim is a $1.6-million hydro project done in partnership with the local Cree. It went through a CSR. It's nearly finished construction now. In that project we had navigable waters involved, and DFO; they were the two main issues. I would say there wa

Environment committee  CEAA already, as you know, has that as a discretionary possibility for the minister to include in, let's say, a panel review. Our view on that one would be that we can see the need for that kind of an “alternatives to” analysis, but where that analysis is already happening in pro

Environment committee  Yes, absolutely.

Environment committee  We think a thorough consultation process that starts long before the federal or provincial processes kick in.... There always will be some potentially affected communities and people and they should be involved right at the front end. In our case in Manitoba, we focus to a great

Environment committee  Oh, sorry.

Environment committee  I think we agree with everything Mr. Barnes said. Our perspective on this is not a simple one in the sense that we don't think the current process is a good one. We think a pure inclusion list may not be workable in itself, though, because just because there's a project.... Let'