Passage of the 900-page 2010 Budget Bill C-9 includes
controversial changes to federal environmental assessment
process
GLOBE-Net, July 13, 2010 - Last night Canada's
Senate passed the omnibus federal government budget bill (Bill
C-9), with previously deleted sections reinstated that some
environmental groups fear will weaken the federal environmental
assessment review
process.
The Senate's National Finance
Committee, responding to requests by various environmental groups,
last week cut out provisions relating to the environmental
assessment process from the massive budget bill.
While some opposition party and
independent senators voted against reinstating these provisions, a
handful of Liberal senators were absent during last night's crucial
vote, thereby allowing passage of the Bill (48 to 44). The Bill
quickly received royal assent and became law late Monday
night.
The sections of Bill C-9 relating to
the environmental review process are intended to strengthen
Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) ability to improve
the timeliness of federal environmental assessments; to establish
clear lines of accountability; and to focus resources where they
could produce the greatest benefit to the environment and the
economy.
The measures remove the obligation
for a federal environmental assessment to be conducted on projects
funded though federal programs, including those that channel
infrastructure money to municipalities and first
nations.
They would also turn assessments of
energy projects that are currently conducted by the Canadian
Environmental Assessment Agency over to the National Energy Board
and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, which
according to the government have more expertise than
CEAA.
And they would give the Minister of
the Environment the power to determine the scope of any
assessment.
"Unfortunately, the Environmental
Assessment process has not worked as well as it needs to and
requires fixing," said Environment Minister Jim Prentice earlier
this month in a
Toronto Star article. "It is prone to delay,
these delays have caused difficulties in harmonization with the
provinces, and it has not benefited the environment and also harmed
the economy."
In principle, the federal
environmental assessment process is handled by the Canadian
Environmental Review Agency (CERA). Interestingly, that agency does
not do environmental assessments. Rather, it coordinates the
activities of over 100 departments and agencies that have
environmental review responsibilities as part of their legislation
and supporting regulatory powers.
Mr. Prentice noted that various
federal departments have spent "not simply months but in fact
years" trying to determine who should take the lead on some
projects, making it all but impossible for the federal government
to co-ordinate its reviews with those done by the
provinces.
In essence, what the Bill C-9
amendments do is to make permanent the temporary regulations put in
place in 2009 to support Canada's Economic Action Plan. Those
regulations exempt routine public infrastructure projects from
environmental assessment
Many industry critics are frustrated
by the laborious and time consuming environmental review process,
which for large projects could drag on for
years. British Columbia has been critical of the
inefficiency and duplication of effort associated with the review
of several major projects valued at over $3 billion that are on
hold in BC awaiting completion of environmental reviews, both
federal and provincial.
BC's Environmental Permitting process
for major projects often duplicates that carried out by federal
agencies, though the latter usually is more expensive and lengthy.
With the federal government stepping aside from many assessments, a
larger number will be left in provincial hands.
While most environmental groups agree
duplication of effort and costly delays in decision making do not
serve the public well, they fear the new powers
granted under Bill C-9 will give the federal environment minister
the ability to scope down assessments of such projects as offshore
oil drilling.
There would be nothing stopping the
minister to say for this offshore facility, for instance, 'Don't
look at the alternative, don't look at greenhouse gases, and don't
look at contingency plans. Let's just focus on, let's say,
wastewater discharges or the onboard storage or loading facilities,
or just look at impacts on fish," said Richard Lindgren, a lawyer
with the Canadian Environmental Law Association, quoted in a
Hill Times article.
"The way to actually streamline the
assessment process is to address some of the environmental issues
up front and do the planning there." said Simon Dyer, oil sands
program director for the Pembina Institute, which is critical of
the approval policy for major energy developments, quoted in
a Reuters
article when Bill C-9 was first introduced.
He added federal authorities should
formulate regional standards for such things as water use, wildlife
habitat and monitoring so developers can address them in the early
planning stages rather than fostering an adversarial
process.
Environmentalists and other special
interest groups will now turn their attention to the statutory
Five-Year Parliamentary review of the Canadian Environmental
Assessment Act that will begin in the fall.