Fisheries committee  One of my colleagues at the fisheries committee in the Senate posed the question to the DFO officials who were on site. One of the concerns was that—and this struck me as odd—we haven't done this before. We don't have a regime set up that fits this system. If that's the concern,

Fisheries committee  No.

Fisheries committee  It depends on the way the system is set up. Normally with a third party habitat banking system, those credits would rest in a place to be drawn upon. The requirements right now under the regulations allow a proponent to subcontract that to a group that does wetland conservation,

Fisheries committee  Sure. I'll give a direct example. It was Senator Dan Christmas of the Membertou First Nation in Nova Scotia. He and I worked together on these amendments. He voted for them. He's with the independent senators group. It was on his initiative that first nations were part of our c

Fisheries committee  Well, I know they didn't come to committee.

Fisheries committee  There was no testimony of first nations at committee.

Fisheries committee  Could I respond to that?

Fisheries committee  If this were passed into law, I think that would be part of the development of the regulatory framework by DFO. They would have years to put together the requirements for a consultation. That obviously would include indigenous groups. Some indigenous groups would want to be part

Fisheries committee  I'm here as a witness, so I don't want to get entirely political, but as much as it was ironic, it was disappointing, because third party habitat banking is a good idea. You've heard it from—

Fisheries committee  —our other witnesses, and we've heard it from stakeholder groups. I'm unsure why. I have been part of the legislative process for a very long time, and not just as a senator but as a senior official at DFO who is knowledgeable about the industry. I know it takes a long time to g

Fisheries committee  No. Actually, habitat banking is common in Canada. Our amendments regarding habitat banking were for third party habitat banking—first nations, conservation groups—which can only be described as a positive advance. The other parts of the amendment were the offset, which were dis

Fisheries committee  Jurisdictional challenge occurs if something is being forced on a jurisdiction by another jurisdiction. I think in any development where there is a benefit to the environment, where there are jobs created, where there is facilitation of a project that might involve a mining com

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon, colleagues. I want to start off by thanking the chair and the members of this committee for inviting me to speak here today about implementing third party habitat banking in the Canadian context. This wasn't part of my speaking notes, but I th

Fisheries committee  No, I'm not.

Fisheries committee  I was a member of the Senate fisheries committee a couple of years ago when we did the seal study and the aquaculture study.