Meaningful public participation is a backbone of environmental assessment. Without it, project reviews can become a closed-door rubber stamp, vulnerable to manipulation by proponents, governments, or any stakeholder with an agenda and a seat at the table.
The BC environmental assessment backbone is broken. And yet we rely on environmental assessment to ensure that large projects don’t harm our lands, our waters and our communities.
Now is your chance to help fix it. Until May 26th at 9:00 am PDT, you can provide feedback to the BC Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) on its public participation processes by posting comments to the EAO’s consultation webpages. Skip down to read how and our suggestions on what to include in your comments, or read through to learn some of the ways public participation in BC can be strengthened.
Why public participation matters
Public participation leads to better environmental decision-making. For example, we found that in review hearings under the former Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, public involvement in the process had positive impacts in the outcomes of the reviews. Public participants can keep reviews balanced by:
- analyzing the myriad information, studies and reports submitted during an EA;
- testing assumptions and claims based on that information;
- providing expert evidence and personal and traditional evidence to fill in knowledge gaps or counter questionable evidence; and
- voicing vital local perspectives, insights and desires about whether, where, when and how development should occur in and near their communities.
In BC, mandatory timelines for assessments, inadequate funding, limited participation opportunities and short public comment periods are just some of the mechanisms used to shut the public out of environmental decision-making.
At the same time, we are facing large industrial proposals, like Kinder Morgan and Enbridge’s proposed oil tankers and pipeline projects, the Fraser Surrey Docks Direct Transfer Coal Facility Project, and a plethora of LNG facilities and their related pipelines and upstream fracking activities. These projects threaten not only BC’s sensitive coastal, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and species, but also the fabric of the communities through which they’ll pass, or up to whose beaches their oil could wash.
Now, more than ever, it is critical that British Columbians be involved in shaping the province’s future. After all, rather than being a hindrance, the public has valuable expertise, perspectives, knowledge and preferences to offer. We need a seat at the table.
Now is your chance. The EAO says it wants to hear citizens’ ideas about ways to improve public participation in environmental assessments in British Columbia and so is inviting you to tell them what works for public engagement in the current EA process, what should be improved, and how does and can the EAO communicate well with the public. Last fall, we submitted recommendations to the EAO on the subject, and we encourage you to do the same.
We have provided a synthesis of our submissions to the EAO in bullet points below. Please feel free to use those ideas (along with your own) in telling the EAO what you think, or else state that you support our recommendations (and provide this link: /sites/default/files/old/files/publications/2014%2011%2024%20EAO%20public%20participation_WCEL%20comments_0.pdf.)
If you have participated in an EA in the past, we encourage you to personalize your comments with examples based on your experience. But most of all, we encourage you to participate in this review, as well as in project assessments that affect you.
As we write this post, the EAO has received only 21 comments, so now is the time to have your voice heard.
Recommendations for improving public participation in BC EAs
Environmental assessments should have early and ongoing processes, as well as adequate time and resources, to meaningfully engage the public. Limited participant funding, restricted opportunities, short timelines, poorly developed processes and narrow project scope impede public participation.
To better achieve its goals, consult meaningfully and ensure public ‘buy in’ of projects, the EAO should:
- Require the involvement of the public throughout all stages of the assessment;
- Ensure that formal public comment periods are long enough to allow the public to thoroughly analyse all relevant information and prepare detailed responses;
- Ensure that all relevant records are considered by the EAO and made publicly available;
- Build flexibility into formal public comment processes to reflect the varying complexity of and public’s interest in different projects, and accommodate identification of data gaps and the reception of new information;
- Require that all information and comments related to follow-up, monitoring, and compliance and enforcement be made publicly available;
- Require proponents to respond to all public comments and that those responses be made publicly available;
- Provide sufficient public funding to enable participants to analyse information and prepare comments at all stages of the assessment on issues of importance to them, including retaining experts and counsel where appropriate;
- Establish means of providing “dialogue participation methods,” such as advisory committees, task forces, and community or advisory boards to emphasize ongoing dialogue and communication among parties; and
- Establish a mechanism for addressing and resolving broader systemic concerns regarding the EA process by First Nations and the public.
The deadline for submitting comments is 9:00 am on May 26, 2015.
By Anna Johnston, Staff Counsel