Federal EA Reform Summit Resources

In November 2015, the Ministers of Environment and Climate Change, Fisheries, Transport, Climate and Natural Resources were given the mandate to “immediately review Canada’s environmental assessment processes.”  In anticipation of that review, West Coast Environmental Law organized a federal EA Reform Summit in Ottawa.

From May 1-3, 2016, EA experts, practitioners and academics gathered from across Canada to discuss, crystallize their thinking, weigh options and seek to find common ground on solutions to key issues in federal EA in preparation for participation in the mandated review of EA processes.

 

Summit Proceedings

The Executive Summary sets out twelve interdependent pillars of a visionary new environmental assessment regime for Canada, distilled from the key principles and recommendations that flowed from the Summit. (version française)

For the entire proceedings: Anna Johnston, Federal Environmental Assessment Reform Summit Proceedings (2016: West Coast Environmental Law).

 

Discussion papers and presentations

Next Generation Environmental Assessment

Speakers: John Sinclair, Meinhard Doelle, Mark Winfield and Merrell-Ann Phare

Reading: Robert B. Gibson, Meinhard Doelle, A. John Sinclair, "Fulfilling the Promise: Basic Components of Next Generation Environmental Assessment," JELP, 27 (forthcoming 2016).

Meinhard Doelle, "CEAA 2012: The End of Federal EA as We Know It?," JELP, 1 (2012).

Mark Winfield, "A New Era of Environmental Governance in Canada" (2016: Metcalf Foundation).

 

Workshops

1. Sustainability Assessment

Leads: John Sinclair and Meinhard Doelle (with Anna Johnston)

Reading:

 

2. Strategic EA and Regional Assessments

Lead: Stephen Hazell, with Cheryl Chetkiewicz

Presentation: Cheryl Chetkiewicz & Bram Noble, "Regional Strategic Environmental Assessment: Opportunities and Challenges in northern Ontario and across Canada," (Presentation, May 2016).

Reading:

 

3. Follow-up, Adaptive Management, Monitoring and Enforcement

Leads: Melissa Gorrie and Karen Campbell

Primer:

Melissa Gorrie and Karen Campbell, "Workshop on Adaptive Management, Follow-up, Monitoring and Enforcement," (2016).

Reading:

 

4. Multijurisdictional Assessments

Leads: Meinhard Doelle, Chris Tollefson and Jason McLean

Reading:

 

5. Public Participation

Lead: John Sinclair, Pat Moss and Gary Schneider

Primer:

Pat Moss, Gary Schneider and John Sinclair, Public Participation in Next Generation EA – A Primer (2016).

Reading:

 

6. Nation-to-Nation Relationships and UNDRIP

Leads: Merrell-Ann Phare, Michael Miltenberger and Larry Innes

Powerpoint: Merrell-Ann Phare, Michael Miltenberger and Larry Innes, "Collaborative Consent: Considering a framework for building nation-to-nation relationships in environmental assessment…" (2016).

 

7. Cumulative Effects Assessment

Lead: Peter Duinker

Reading:

 

8. Assessing Climate in EA

Leads: Chris Tollefson and Anthony Ho

Reading:

 

Top photo: Anton Bielousov