VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – The Canadian government has created a four-member expert panel to undertake a promised review of the federal environmental assessment process, which was one of the incumbent Liberal government’s 2015 election campaign promises.
The Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna this week announced that Johanne Gélinas had been appointed as the chairperson of the expert panel, which included Doug Horswill, Rod Northey and Renée Pelletier.
According to a news release, panel members were selected based on their knowledge, experience and expertise relevant to federal environmental assessment processes.
The expert panel will engage broadly with Canadians, including indigenous groups, the public and a range of stakeholders in an effort to ensure that decisions on major projects are based on science, facts and evidence, including traditional knowledge of indigenous people.
“Our belief that a clean environment and a strong economy go hand in hand is central to the health and wellbeing of Canadians. This is especially important as we work to get resources to market and to develop major projects responsibly in the twenty-first century. Canadians expect and deserve to have an environmental assessment system that they can trust,” McKenna stated.
In January, McKenna and Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr introduced five new temporary measures as the first step of a broader strategy to “review and restore confidence” in Canada’s environmental assessment processes, particularly when it comes to critically needed new oil and gas pipeline projects. The review is intended to provide greater certainty on how government would be guided when applying its discretionary decision-making authority for projects being assessed during the review of environmental assessment processes.
Minister McKenna’s mandate letter directed her, as a top priority, to “immediately review Canada’s environmental assessment processes to regain public trust, help get resources to market and introduce new, fair processes that would restore robust oversight and thorough environmental assessments of areas under federal jurisdiction". McKenna would need to do this while working with provinces and territories to: avoid duplication, ensure decisions are based on science, facts and evidence that serve the public’s interest, provide ways for Canadians to express their views and opportunities for experts to meaningfully participate, and get project advocates to choose the best technologies available to reduce environmental impacts.
The panel had been tasked to complete the review and deliver a report to the Minister by January 31, 2017.
Other ministers had also been mandated to carry out reviews and propose reforms on matters that intersected with environmental assessment. These included the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, who would review changes to the Fisheries Act, restore lost protections and incorporate modern safeguards; the Minister of Natural Resources, who would modernise the National Energy Board to ensure that its composition reflected regional views and had sufficient expertise in fields such as environmental science, community development and indigenous traditional knowledge; and the Minister of Transport who would review changes to the Navigable Waters Protection Act, restore lost protections and incorporate modern safeguards.