Natural Resources committee  I'll answer the question more of who “does” right now. The “should” is maybe a bit trickier. In other jurisdictions, such as the United States, this is a power generally confined to governments, the federal government in the U.S. and state governments. It is a bit broader in the U.S. in that state tribes are also authorized to sue.

Natural Resources committee  Essentially I'm two lines away, Mr. Chair. Thank you. My final comment there simply is that the making of such regulations, which ideally would be made applicable to all of the federal environmental damage assessment regimes that I just referred to, would go a long way, I think, in strengthening the preventative effect of this legislation.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and members of the committee. My name is Martin Olszynski. I'm an assistant professor at the University of Calgary, Faculty of Law. The focus of my presentation today is on what are commonly referred to as the environmental damages provisions of Bill C-46.