55. If a monitoring committee has not already been established, the storage licence holder must establish one to foster the local community’s involvement in the storage project as a whole.
The committee must be formed within 90 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 Minister also determines the number of members who are to form 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 citizen and, if applicable, one member representing an Indigenous 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 may determine, by regulation, other particulars relating to consultations that are applicable to a storage licence holder.
2016, c. 35, s. 232016, c. 35, s. 23; 2022, c. 102022, c. 10, s. 4011a.