Senate cancels Yukon board's appearance on changes to its governing act
Says YESAB's written submission 'clearly outlines the board's position'
Senators have heard from Yukon's premier, First Nations and the mining industry about a bill that would make changes to the current assessment act, but this week the people who run the review process were told they don't need to come to Ottawa.
In mid-September the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board requested the opportunity to appear before the Senate subcommittee and that request was granted. YESAB Chair Ken McKinnon planned to fly to Ottawa to speak next week.
He sent a written submission in advance of his testimony and now Ottawa is rescinding his invitation.
McKinnon received an email from a Senate clerk.
"The committee wishes to thank you very much for the presentation/submission you emailed the Clerk, which clearly outlines the Board's position," the email said. "Therefore an appearance in person will not be necessary."
McKinnon is surprised.
"We thought that we had something to offer to the Senate committee," he said.
He says the independent, neutral organization has conducted about 2,000 assessments. McKinnon was hoping to talk to the committee about proposed timeline changes for reviews.
Other proposed changes include giving the federal minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development the ability to issue binding policy direction to YESAB and the ability to delegate that power to the Yukon government.