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Harper government to slacken the Environmental Impact Assessment Act
Posted by Montreal Environment in Biodiversity, Resource Development, Transport
Every time one hears ‘streamline’ and ‘cutting red tape’ from a minister, you can be sure something more significant hides behind promises of government efficiency. If you are worried that the recent economic turmoil will push governments to slacken environmental regulations you can count in Canada to take the lead. Le Devoir has revealed that the Harper government is planning to pass amendments to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Act and Review Regulations by limiting EIA to projects above $10 million. Under the current EIA Act all projects with potential negative environmental impacts or receiving federal financing have to submit to the EIA process. By limiting the scope of the federal EIA, the government wants to fast-track the many infrastructure projects to be financed under the Building Canada seven year plan (2007-2014). Non-exempted projects will be undergoing the provincial EIA process that in general is much less rigorous than its federal counterpart.
Federal Environmental Impact Assessment process
The federal government is also planning to enact a ‘new law’ that will permanently replace the EIA Act regulation in March or April, the details of which will be negotiated this Friday when Prime Minister Harper meets its provincial counterparts. It is expected that the law will establish a new process of impact assessment for large projects, authorise the fusion of federal and provincial processes, and put in place a “simplified regimes for crown lands”. Its application will be the responsibility of the Canadian Environmental Impact Assessment Agency and is expected to accelerate the implementation of infrastructure projects. This new amendments will have significant implications for projects on First Nations territories, which are largely crown lands.
The Minister of Transport, John Baird wants so called ‘green’ projects that include transportation and waste-water treatment plants to be exempt from EIAs. He said mandatory environmental assessments are a problem, and he should be quite familiar with these as former Environmental Minister. As former Environmental Minister he should also be aware that even a highway can have serious negative environmental impacts and possibly social costs as well, and the EIA is the only federal legislation that can mitigate such impacts. Limiting its scope can lead to irreversible cumulative impacts that will affect generations to come. Nevertheless, the looming recession is used both as stick and carrot. Either way sustainable development will inevitably loose this battle unless civil society intervenes.
In an interview with Le Devoir, NDP MP Thomas Mulcair, former provincial Environment Minister for Quebec decried such ‘arbitrary’ changes and warned the feds they are in for a fight. He insisted that the federal initiative “denotes a scandalous breach of environmental protection, for, the ecological value of the environment affected by a project has nothing to do with the economic value of the project itself. It is very plausible, and this is one example, that a project of a few million can threaten a swamp or wetland of exceptional value[…] what the Conservatives are preparing is the antithesis of sustainable development and it is scandalous to try and circumvent the rules that protect our environment.”
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