C's new Environmental Assessment Act, together with the
regulations covering the application of the Act and the timelines
for the review process, will come into force on June 30. The
new Act will replace the Mine Development Review Process, the
Energy Project Review Process and the Major Project Review Process.
The Act will be applied to any project or activity listed by
regulation as well as any project or activity designated by the
Minister of Environment, Lands and Parks.
The review process under the Act has three stages: the application
stage, the project report stage and the public hearing stage.
At the conclusion of each stage a decision will be made whether
to approve or reject the proposal or whether to require further
review. There is no guarantee at the beginning of the process
that a proposal will go through all three stages, so it is essential
that anyone with concerns about a proposal raise them during the
first stage.
The Act provides for public input at a number of key stages:
One of the innovative features of the new Act is a project registry that will provide notice and information to the public throughout the review process. The Project Registry will contain a wealth of important information, including:
An electronic listing of documents relating to reviewable projects will be available on-line through the Internet.
The Act allows for participant assistance to individuals, public interest groups or First Nations to facilitate their participation in environmental assessments. It also allows for public advisory committees, on an optional basis, to provide ongoing advice during the assessment process.
During the development of the regulation governing the application of the Act, West Coast Environmental Law Association pressed for applying the Act to all new or expanding fish farm operations. The province has announced an environmental review of existing operations in the Broughton Archipelago to help determine the size threshold for reviewable fish farm operations.
Development of the Act and regulations involved extensive consultation. Participants in the consultation process included Ann Hillyer of West Coast Environmental Law Association and Pat Moss, Adrienne Peacock and Lloyd Manchester of the Environmental Assessment Caucus of BC Environmental Network.
Bill 22, the Farm Practices Protection (Right to Farm) Act, recently was introduced in the Legislature. It raises some serious concerns in connection with salmon farming in BC, since Bill 22 applies to aquaculture as well as conventional land-based agriculture.
Bill 22 severely limits the common law action of nuisance in a way that is not appropriate for fish farming operations. The right to bring an action is extinguished if fish farming or other aquacultural activities are licenced under the Fisheries Act, are not in contravention of other specific Acts, and are conducted according to "normal farm practices". The definition of "normal farm practices" in Bill 22 is extremely broad, requiring only that activities be conducted in a way consistent with "proper and accepted customs ... followed by similar farm businesses" and any prescribed standards. This permits a wide range of activities to occur, some of which could well constitute a nuisance. For instance, the use of acoustic harassment devices to frighten marine mammals might be considered a normal practice in the industry, but in some locations could cause a nuisance to adjoining property owners.
The general intent of Bill 22 is to provide protection for established agricultural activities when nearby land undergoes residential or other development. But unlike many land-based agricultural activities, salmon farming is often a new activity in an otherwise pristine area.
These provisions restricting nuisance actions in connection with salmon farming are particularly troubling in light of the current review and development of a provincial finfish aquaculture policy by the Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. This review includes undertaking an assessment of salmon farming in the Broughton Archipelago under the provisions of the new provincial Environmental Assessment Act to examine environmental issues with fish farming and determine what conditions should be placed on these operations in this and other areas.
We have written to Environment Minister Elizabeth Cull and Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Minister David Zirnhelt urging them to refer the question of whether or not salmon farming should be included in Bill 22 to the provincial policy review that is now underway and to defer any decision on this matter until the review is completed.
ELIB will grow by some 60 publications this week. In a push toward
getting as much information on-line in as little time possible,
we have now reached the end of the backlog of unprocessed files
left over from our previous verion of ELIB. This was one of the
final steps in the conversion of ELIB to the World Wide Web.
The remaining documents - which include bilingual catalogues of Federal environmental assessment documents; non-compliance lists; research papers; WCELRF publications; and a Canadian Environmental Assessment Act guide and support documents - will be made available on the Internet over the next week. The research papers cover a wide range of topics, from the presence of polonium and lead in the arctic food chain and the state of environmental assessment in Asia to the impact of ATVs on bogs and barrens in the Maritimes and a look at the cumulative losses of Canadian and US prairie wetlands.
We have also posted the most recent Environmental Appeal Board decisions, and reorganized the table of contents for this resource. Our collection of EAB decisions is now current to Appeal No. 94/10.
WCEL's newsletters are also available on the Internet, usually a day or two after the print version is published.
The province has begun to address the issues of rapid population growth and urban sprawl with the introduction of Bill 11, the Growth Strategies Act, in the legislature. This Act will amend the Municipal Act and the Vancouver Charter to provide regional districts with the authority to adopt regional growth strategies, provide mechanisms for co-ordination between municipalities and regional districts on issues crossing municipal boundaries, and establish tools for co-ordinating local and provincial government actions for implementing a regional growth strategy.
Bill 11 states that the purpose of a regional growth strategy is to "promote human settlement that is socially, economically and environmentally healthy and that makes efficient use of public facilities and services, land and other resources." It provides that a regional growth strategy should work towards a number of commendable objectives, including
Cabinet may designate an area where a regional growth strategy must be developed and specify the deadline for adopting it. However, designation will only happen where that area is experiencing significant change in its population, its economic development or an aspect of growth or development that involves co-ordination between local governments. Otherwise, a regional district is permitted - but not required - to adopt a regional growth strategy.
The Act also sets out provisions for public consultation during the development of a regional growth strategy and a number of mechanisms to facilitate agreements and resolve disputes.
While a useful first step in addressing these critical issues in the province, Bill 11 does not set any overall provincial objectives and targets that must be met in the regional growth planning process, nor does it require even the fastest growing regions to embark on the process. That will be up to Cabinet.
- Ann Hillyer
Last Friday the BC government filed an objection to the jurisdiction of Information Commissioner David Flaherty to hold an inquiry into the Ministry of Environment's refusal to provide digital maps to the Western Canada Wilderness Committee.
The government charges $600 per file for GIS (geographic information system) data that WCWC wants to use for making environmental maps. WCWC cannot afford this and requested a public interest fee waiver, but the Ministry refused. WCWC then requested the data under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The Act allows the government to refuse access to information which is available for purchase, but WCWC will argue that this is subject to a reasonableness test - and that a price of $600 per file is an unreasonable barrier to access for a non-profit environmental group. The Act allows an applicant to request a review by the Commission, which is what WCWC did when the ministry refused the request under the Act.
However, the Attorney General's ministry, on behalf of the environment ministry, argued that the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act simply does not apply to information which is available for purchase. It argued that if a government agency merely claims that information is available for purchase then the Act does not apply and the Commissioner has no jurisdiction to review the matter.
WCELA lawyer Bill Andrews will file a reply on behalf of WCWC by June 9. His reply calls the government's argument "absurd," noting that if the Act simply does not apply to information available for purchase then the government could avoid the protection of privacy provisions of the Act simply by offerring personal secrets for sale - clearly not what the Legislature intended.
For more information, please contact Bill Andrews at WCELA.
Provincial demands for a weaker federal role in the environment brought an abrupt halt - at least temporarily - to the environmental harmonization initiative sponsored by the Council of Canadian Ministers of the Environment (CCME) at the ministers mid-May meeting in Haines Junction, Yukon. Reports from the closed door meeting indicate that federal Environment Minister Sheila Copps told provincial environment ministers that she would not weaken the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, despite provincial demands.
She told the media that, "The central government opposes what it sees as a loss of national perspective on environmental issues." The Minister said, "We believe there's a role for the federal government to play in national environmental assessment and we're not prepared to put that on the table."
As a result of the clash, provincial ministers scuttled plans to release publicly a draft Environmental Managment Framework Agreement and 11 draft schedules. Although the disagreement focused on only one of the schedules, regarding environmental assessment, provincial ministers argued that the documents were negotiated as a package. A public consultation meeting planned for late June has also been cancelled.
Officially, the initiative was not killed, but merely sent back to the federal-provincial "Lead Representatives Committee" for revisions. However, with cutbacks dominating the federal scene and soon to hit the provinces, it seems likely that basis of the initiative will have to change. "Overlap and duplication," assumed to be the key problem when the initiative began, has been eclipsed by the need to plug current and potential gaps in the environmental protection activities of the two levels of government.
For more information, please contact Bill Andrews at WCELA.
WCELRF, 1001 207 West Hastings, Vancouver, B.C., V6B 1H7, Canada. Phone (604) 6847378; fax (604) 6841312; email wcelrf@unixg.ubc.ca. Printed on 100% recycled paper (not secondarily bleached or de-inked).
WCELRF Newsletter (ISSN #0715-4275), copyright 1995, is
published by the West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation.
Subscription information is above. West Coast Environmental Law
Research Foundation does research and education and maintains
an environmental law library. West Coast Environmental Law Association
provides legal representation and promotes law reform. The mission
of West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation and West Coast
Environmental Law Association is to provide legal services to
protect the environment and to foster public participation in
environmental decision-making. We are grateful to the Law Foundation
of British Columbia for core funding of West Coast Environmental
Law Association and West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation.
Donations to West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation
are tax creditable.
This issue was produced by Bill Andrews, Morgan Ashbridge, Jessica Clogg, Chris Heald, Ann Hillyer, Patricia Houlihan, Ted Lewko, Catherine Ludgate, Lisa McBain, Alexandra Melnyk, and Linda Nowlan.
