Natural resources and industrial projects can bring important benefits to communities. But they can also pose risks to those same communities, as well as to the environment.
This report highlights a variety of environmental disasters and significant cumulative effects that have happened in Canada as a result of weak, poorly implemented or badly enforced environmental laws. These disasters are a harbinger of scenarios that could result from proposals to fast-track and exempt major projects from environmental regulation and assessment processes.
Co-authored by West Coast Staff Lawyer Anna Johnston and Kristen Theriault, a former student at the Environmental Justice and Sustainability Clinic at York University, the report illustrates the economic, environmental and human costs of inadequate assessment, regulatory decision-making and monitoring. It also provides examples of how environmental impact assessments, strategic land use planning and collaborative governance have helped improve project design to avoid unacceptable risks and deliver better results for communities.
Environmental impact assessment and strong environmental laws help prevent environmental problems from occurring in the first place. Without them, disasters happen.