Natural Resources committee  Thank you for your question. I appreciate the offer to answer yes or no. I guess I'll simply answer yes. We often hear about barriers to investments surrounding the regulatory process. That was actually one of the drivers to the creation of the BREA initiative--that is, unloadi

Natural Resources committee  That's a fair statement, yes.

Natural Resources committee  One way to measure or benchmark our relative success is to look at the results of our call for bids. We've had great success recently in terms of attracting industry. You've had some specific numbers to that, so I would say—

Natural Resources committee  Prior to addressing your specific question on BREA, I'd like to mention in a somewhat counter-intuitive way that oftentimes, when there are developments and there are finds in the north, it actually benefits the communities. In a specific case, there was a natural gas find outsid

Natural Resources committee  So in that particular example, it's actually a benefit. So sometimes counter-intuitively, our program—and it's not something that we control, obviously—can lead to some local sources of energy that are much more economic and better for the environment.

Natural Resources committee  That's right.

Natural Resources committee  For BREA specifically, climate change was identified, as I mentioned earlier, as one of these broader kinds of regional issues, and we do have a climate change working group under BREA. They are starting to work to identify specific projects that will not only assist in the plann

Natural Resources committee  Generally speaking, the department is not involved. We have various levels of agreement. The one you are talking about is between the communities and companies. The department has other types of agreements. I have learned through experience that it is best for those agreements to

Natural Resources committee  Thank you for your question. As all other departments, we had to implement the government's decisions regarding public service. Specifically regarding the management of our program, we had to implement an efficiency program to be able to reach the government's objectives. Yes, a

Natural Resources committee  We are currently identifying those positions. As you may know, it's a matter of timing. I would not like to rush any final decisions, but I can assure you that—

Natural Resources committee  Thank you. The Beaufort regional environmental assessment actually covers the entire Beaufort Sea. From the beginning, there was a sort of common understanding from parties that there were certain issues that really didn't lend themselves very well to being assessed on a project

Natural Resources committee  Thank you. I will answer your question on two levels. There are two different types of geomapping. The geomapping I was speaking about is software that we use to organize the environmental data; that is, baseline information on the migration patterns of species, for example, but

Natural Resources committee  Thank you.

Natural Resources committee  Yes. I can provide the clerk with a copy of our maps. We make extensive use of a geomatics system, which helps us in areas such as consultation. It's a very visual technique that facilitates the work. The system is available at our offices, but Canadians can access it through our

Natural Resources committee  Yes. Thank you. In the presentation, we talked about the Beaufort Regional Environmental Assessment. That assessment involved the industry, the Inuvialuits, regulatory agencies, as well as various federal and territorial departments. We call that a partnership, but it was not su