Feds to review environmental permitting across Canada

Canada’s federal government has officially launched a major review of environmental permitting for resource projects, stating it wants to “restore confidence” in the country’s environmental and regulatory processes.

The new panel to carry out the review is named the “Review of the Environmental Assessment Processes Expert Panel.”

Commenting that she wants to “ensure that decisions on major projects are based on science, facts and evidence, including traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples,” the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna, yesterday named the high-powered panel members, and issued the panel a mandate and timelines.

Johanne Gélinas will chair the panel, and Doug Horswill, Rod Northey and Renée Pelletier will serve as panel members.

The government said the four were picked based on their knowledge, experience and relevant expertise, and fulfilled a “need for diversity in terms of indigenous, regional and gender representation.”

Gélinas is a partner in the Strategy and Performance Consulting Group at Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton’s Montreal office, in charge of its Sustainability and Greenhouse Gas Management practice, and led the sustainable development and climate change practice at Deloitte, from 2007 to 2012. Her official biography notes she was the Canadian Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development from 2000 to 2007, and served for 10 years as Commissioner with the Quebec government’s Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE).

Mining industry professionals will recognize panel member Doug Horswill, who retired as senior vice-president of sustainability and external affairs from Teck Resources in April 2014. With a B.A.Sc. in mineral engineering and an MA in economics from the University of British Columbia, Horswill served 20 years in the public service, rising to deputy minister in finance and resources in B.C. before joining Cominco and later Teck as a vice-president. There, as his biography describes, he spent 22 years developing and leading the major’s sustainability, community relations, environment, health, safety and external relations areas, including Teck’s international Zinc & Health program. He is also a past chairman of the Mining Association of Canada, the Mining Association of British Columbia and Resource Works.

Rod Northey is an environmental lawyer and partner in the Toronto office of Gowling WLG, and is now in his twenty-seventh year of private practice. He is author of the 2016 Guide to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, among other titles; is an adjunct faculty member at Osgoode Hall Law School’s Municipal Law LLM program for a graduate course on environmental protection; and played a role in creating the Ontario Greenbelt.

The fourth panel member is Renée Pelletier, the managing partner at Olthuis Kleer Townshend LLP, described as one of Canada’s leading aboriginal rights law firms, where she practices aboriginal rights and environmental law. Renée is described in her biography as Maliseet (an aboriginal group from the Saint John River valley and environs) and French Acadian, and she grew up in Nova Scotia.

The panel is tasked with “engaging broadly with Canadians,” including indigenous groups, the public and a wide range of stakeholders, with consultation opportunities across Canada starting in September 2016.

There are new funding opportunities available for indigenous groups who want to participate in the review, which the government said is part of its “commitment to renewing its relationship with indigenous people based on trust, respect and cooperation,” so that indigenous concerns “are heard and taken into account throughout the review.”

More information on the funding and other information are available at https://www.canada.ca/en/services/environment/conservation/assessments/environmental-reviews.html.

Another good place to keep up with things is the Twitter feed of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency at http://twitter.com/CEAA_ACEE and using the hashtag #EAReview.

To directly participate in the review or to check the calendar of events across Canada, please visit: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/environment/conservation/assessments/environmental-reviews/share-your-views.html.

The Mining Association of Canada (MAC) says it is “impressed by the depth and breadth of expertise amongst the individuals appointed to the expert panel. Several individuals also have good knowledge of the mining industry, which is appropriate, given that the mining sector makes up the largest number of environmental assessments conducted by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.”

The MAC said it is encouraged that the terms of references for the panel incorporated suggestions that it and others made during public consultations on draft terms of reference released earlier this year.

The MAC comments that the legislative reforms passed by the Conservative government in 2012 “did not result in diminished federal oversight of mining projects,” and that mining projects remain subject to several federal laws, including the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, the Fisheries Act and Navigation Protection Act, and that mining projects still represent most federal environmental assessments and Section 35 authorizations under the Fisheries Act.