Fisheries committee  It is a different model, because what you're talking about there is the investment of financial resources directly into a trust fund, which then administers the outcomes that are desired. There's an intermediary there.

Fisheries committee  What's a little bit different here is that.... Pardon?

Fisheries committee  Yes, it's just a different model.

Fisheries committee  Yes. It's a great question. I think that in regulation you would have to give some thought to whether you are going to define which organizations or types of organizations would be eligible to be offset providers, right? You would certainly need to have some stipulation around

Fisheries committee  Yes. Again, I won't speak on behalf of the first nations, but the reality in Ontario over the last 10 years at least, particularly in greenfield hydro development in northern Ontario, has been that the first nations are actually proponents and partners in the projects. They are c

Fisheries committee  Yes. I think I mentioned in my remarks that I had the pleasure of sitting on Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry Wetland Conservation Strategy Advisory Panel. We were tasked under the previous government, over a period of about six months, with providing advice t

Fisheries committee  Yes. We are responsible for the environmental assessment process in Ontario. Our environmental assessment process very clearly maps out the mitigation hierarchy, so you cannot get to mitigation until to you go through avoidance and prevention. I have heard that as well—that every

Fisheries committee  I would point out that the conversation about whether or not an offset works is a conversation that happens whether you are talking about habitat banking or compensation that happens outside of banking. The same observations would be made with respect to a project that was being

Fisheries committee  I think what I was speaking about is taking a landscape approach to the notion of habitat banking. In our province, for example, the hydroelectric facilities are managed on a watershed basis. You can envision a habitat banking proposal that looked at a broader scale across the wa

Fisheries committee  I think it just builds the tent bigger, to be honest. Whether it's on the environment, social equity or gender diversity, I think corporate citizenship is a cultural phenomenon for many corporations across the country. I think what this does is build the tent bigger. It brings

Fisheries committee  I would agree with that. Those are some of the really interesting and intriguing policy conversations that would happen underneath the enabling part of the legislation. You're absolutely right to point out that this is a key consideration. Dan is right. There are multiple ways

Fisheries committee  Yes. Those conversations happen now. Dan is right. Once you go through the hierarchy of avoidance, prevention and mitigation and you're into mitigation, those conversations happen now at a project level with the regulator. The innovation that we're talking about here, or the tool

Fisheries committee  Thank you, and thanks to the committee members for the opportunity to provide our insight and perspective on your consideration of the enablement of an optional third party habitat banking system as a component of Bill C-68. My name is Paul Norris. I'm President of the Ontario