Fisheries committee  Yes, it is.

Fisheries committee  It is. The factors that the minister must take into account do refer back to his or her consideration of offset plans and measures to avoid and mitigate impacts to fish and fish habitat. It is a consideration that the minister must make prior to the issuance of an authorization.

Fisheries committee  Yes.

Fisheries committee  That's correct.

Fisheries committee  I think it really is a technical correction to ensure that, if there are other schemes that are used to issue an authorization permit under the act, those are duly considered. The idea is that the language around “authorized, otherwise permitted” is not as precise as referring sp

Fisheries committee  In Bill C-68, there is the introduction of a permit scheme, where the word “permit” is used to define a statutory instrument. The term “permitted” is to refer to the permit scheme, whereas the language that previously read “otherwise permitted” is a bit vague around what it's spe

Fisheries committee  The schemes for permitting include the new scheme for permits for projects, but may also include a fisheries licence, for example, which is under the fisheries provisions of the act. That's an example of another instrument found in the act that this would then refer to. It's inte

Fisheries committee  Which also deems them—

Fisheries committee  That's correct. (Amendment agreed to)

Fisheries committee  The main objective of the advisory committee is to ensure that there are experts available to provide advice to the minister, and so, depending on the subject of the advisory committee, it would be the minister who would determine what the appropriate level of expertise would be,

Fisheries committee  If I may, the advisory panels can be related to any subject matter under the Fisheries Act with respect to conservation, so it is not just limited to issues related to fisheries. By forcing having a fisheries organization on such a committee, it may not be the right fit for the p

Fisheries committee  It is extremely difficult to define a “natural” ecosystem, because many water bodies have had some form of human alteration at some point in time. That becomes the challenge of using the term “natural”.

Fisheries committee  As it stands, they are not triggers of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. Bill C-69 is the act that deals with that. I would note, though, that fisheries are a significant trigger for environmental assessment. Not in the way that it was prior to 2012, with a trigger comin

Fisheries committee  What I referred to is a service level area, which is essentially an ecosystem within the general area of the activity. It's not to say going from one province to another province or thousands of miles away. It's simply to say that it's broader than the site of the impact and it h

Fisheries committee  This is all to be developed.