Together with our allies, we are continuing to hold the federal government's feet to the fire to minimize the fall out from "budget" bill C-38 in relation to the new Canadian Environmental Assessment Act 2012. The so-called consultation process for CEAA 2012's critical Project LIst continues - currently a document virtually copied and pasted from the previous Act - and we're asking the Minister to make good on the government's consultation and amendment promises

On May 31, 2012, I travelled to Ottawa, on behalf of West Coast Environmental Law Association, to speak in person about the budget bill’s attack on nature and democracy to the House of Commons Finance Subcommittee on Part 3 of Budget Bill C-38. What is Part 3 of Bill C-38, you may ask?  Part 3 of the 452 page budget bill, a full one third (153 pages) of the bill, is titled “Responsible Resource Development.” This Part is where the proposed cuts and rollbacks to the Fisheries Act, Species at Risk Act, National Energy Board Act, Canadian Environmental Protection Act we have been telling you about and advocating against are. It also entirely replaces the existing environmental assessment law with the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act 2012, an emaciated and entirely new approach to environmental assessment in Canada.

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.