Canada’s Environmental Assessment Law Is Under Attack

Please see our current Action Alert:
Canada’s Environmental Assessment Law Is Under Attack

The present Canadian government doesn’t understand or value environmental assessment any more than it understands or values sustainable development. Unless the Canadian public – not just environmental groups – takes a stand, we could lose what’s left of the federal environmental assessment process, and with it the possibility of building a coherent and consistent framework for planning for sustainable development.

Based on developments over the last couple of years, the federal government clearly views environmental assessment as a nuisance or obstacle – from the removal of the Navigable Waters Protection Act as a trigger for the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA) to the exclusion of ‘stimulus’ projects, to the use of the 2010 Budget Implementation Bill to counteract the Supreme Court of Canada’s MiningWatch decision (the Red Chris mine). The current government does not share (or maybe even comprehend) our vision of environmental assessment as part of an integrated and participatory planning process with sustainable development as its ultimate objective.