Merci, Monsieur le President. My question is for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
The Department conducted a fiveweek public engagement on a new Forest Act that concluded on December 28, 2022. No report on that work has been released to date. The summary of policy intentions document made no mention of a public registry or what information would be made publicly available. To better understand what information is currently public and the number of authorizations and decisions made under existing legislation, please provide the following:
The number of instances where decisions and authorizations have been made under the Forest Management Act for each of the last five years related to:
Section 2 appointments of a Forest Management Supervisor;
Section 4 appointments of Forest Management Officers;
Section 8 transfer of forests to Canada;
Section 9 forest management agreements;
Section 10 permits and licences;
Section 19 suspension of a permit or licence;
Section 21 written reasons for the suspension of a permit or licence;
Section 22 notices of appeal;
Section 28 ministerial decisions on appeals; and,
Section 30 enforcement orders.
The number of instances where decisions and authorizations have been made under the Forest Protection Act for each of the last five years related to:
Section 16 appointments of a forest supervisor;
Section 17 appointments of forest officers;
Section 19 directions, demands, and notices issued by the forest supervisor; and,
Section 21 permits issued.
For each of the items listed in 1 and 2, please indicate where these documents are publicly available without resort to the Access to Information and Protection and Privacy Act and where the public can access them.
An explanation of how the department intends to implement the provisions of the Open Government Policy (approved by the Executive Council January 8, 2018) as part of the new Forest Act, especially regarding openbydesign information and decisionmaking, increased transparency, and public participation in decisionmaking.
