With the release of the proposed new Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012, we can say a bit more about the possible impact of changes to environmental assessment on the right of the public to participate in assessments.  Our initial analysis of Bill C-38 suggests that there is cause for concern:  If this new CEAA becomes law, then for some types of environmental assessments, the public will still have a right to participate – but for others (notably pipeline projects) – the government may not want to hear from you unless the pipeline goes through your property or you have a degree (or other special qualifications or information).

The federal government seems set on further gutting theCanadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA), and is expected to introduce “sweeping” regulatory changes to CEAA and related legislation in the House of Commons in the coming weeks. These changes could affect upcoming proposals for pipelines, tar sands projects, mines, small and large energy generation, and much more. It is possiblethe government could also use this opportunity to affect the process for projects currently in the environmental review process, like the Enbridge oil pipeline and supertanker, New Prosperity, or Site C Clean Energy Project proposals.

Recently the federal Ministers of the Environment and of Natural Resources have publicly confirmed that major changes may be in the works for federal environmental assessment (EA). And by all indications Canadians should be worried. Based on statements made in an open letter released January 9th, federal Natural Resources Minister Oliver appears to view the democratic right of citizens to be heard and the constitutional right of First Nations to be honourably consulted about, for example, large inter-provincial oil pipeline and tanker terminal projects as merely ‘exploiting loopholes’ in and ‘hijacking’ the regulatory process (which is designed to allow citizen participation) to achieve ‘radical’ agendas.

Today, November 7, 2011, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (the Agency) announced that Taseko Mine Ltd.’s gold and copper mine proposal, New Prosperity, will undergo a federal environmental assessment.

As we have explained, we do not think that the New Prosperity proposal is anything more than a re-packaging of the previously assessed and vehemently rejected option two of the original Prosperity Mine proposal and thus we are disappointed to learn that additional time and resources will be spent further assessing this proposed project.