Yesterday, Canada's Minister of Finance released the 2012 budget, which proposes significant changes to the federal environmental assessment (EA) and aboriginal consultation processes. The changes reflect the government's intention to remove regulatory barriers to investment and development. Once implemented, the changes should simplify EA and aboriginal consultation requirements, reduce delays and give provincial governments more control over resource development.
The following improvements are planned:
- Limit the number of federal authorities involved in EA and aboriginal consultation processes
- Integrate aboriginal consultation with EA reviews
- Coordinate federal and provincial aboriginal consultation
- Set specific federal EA timelines of 24 months for panel reviews and 12 months for standard EAs
- Authorize federal authorities to accept provincial EAs as substitute for or equivalent to federal EAs
The federal budget follows in the wake of a review of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA) completed earlier this month. In its review, the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development suggested improving timeliness and reducing overlap and duplication between the EA processes of federal and provincial regulatory authorities. The changes proposed in the federal budget follow many of the committee's recommendations.
Specific legislative amendments will be introduced to enact the changes proposed in the budget. It remains to be seen how the changes will affect projects currently under EA or aboriginal consultation processes.
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