28. An exploration licence holder must establish a monitoring committee to foster the local community’s involvement in the exploration project as a whole.
The committee must be established within 30 days after the licence is awarded and must be maintained, as the case may be, throughout the term of the licence or, in the case provided for in the second paragraph of section 97, until all the work required under the permanent well or reservoir closure and site restoration plan has been completed.
The committee members are chosen in accordance with the process determined by the licence holder and approved by the Minister. The licence holder also determines the number of members who are to sit on the committee. However, the committee must include at least one member representing the municipal sector, one member representing the economic sector, one member representing the agriculture sector, one member of the public and, if applicable, one member representing a Native community consulted by the Government with respect to the project. A majority of the committee members must be independent from the licence holder. All must be from the region in which the territory subject to the licence is situated.
The Government determines, by regulation, the particulars relating to the committee with respect to such matters as the independence of committee members, the information and documents a licence holder must provide to the committee, the nature of the costs that are reimbursed to committee members by the licence holder, the minimum number of meetings the committee must hold each year and the production of an annual report by the committee. The Government determines, in the same manner, the cases in which and the conditions on which a licence holder to whom another exploration licence is awarded is not required to establish a new monitoring committee.
The Government may determine, by regulation, other particulars relating to consultations that are applicable to an exploration licence holder.
2016, c. 35, s. 232016, c. 35, s. 23.