Ottawa moves on the environment

The federal government is acutely aware of the importance of environmental concerns and it is striving to exercise a leadership role. Legislation in this regard, Bill C-13, virtually assures that this will happen.

Bill C-13 is the enabling legislation of Ottawa’s comprehensive Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and it also represents the federal government’s end-run around provincial enactments in the environmental arena. Work started on the bill in 1987 and it is expected to be proclaimed and made law in the current session of Parliament.

The regulations proposed for governing the implementation of the act are now being reviewed by interested parties and the general public. It is expected that the subsequently amended and revised regulations will become law before the end of the year.

A contingent from the Federal Environmental Assessment Review Office (FEARO) has toured the country. It started at St. John’s, Nfld., Jan. 9, and finished at Whitehorse, Yukon, Feb. 7. The group was recently in Toronto for a 1-day session and the legislation and regulations were reviewed. About two dozen persons made up the audience and their comments on the proposed regulations were sought.

Until now, mining activities have been largely under provincial jurisdiction. This is changing, all the more certainly with the federal position strongly re-reinforced by the recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in the case of the Oldman River dam in southern Alberta. The Oldman River case, in a nutshell, dealt with the question: who has ultimate jurisdiction in the environmental field — Ottawa or the province? The court came out in favor of the feds.

Bill C-13 is the formalization of a screening process. If a given project does not pass through a series of screens or tests, it becomes the subject of a comprehensive environmental study. This will comprise a significant input from expert bodies and the general public. There will be statutory time limits on the various elements of the study and on its overall duration, according to Mike Lascelles, senior policy analyst.

If a project passes through the screens, it bypasses the comprehensive study and may go directly into the provincial bailiwick.

Projects that pass the screens are those in which there is no federal involvement; those excluded by law or regulations; and those that are not on the comprehensive study list.

The purpose of FEARO’s field trip through the provinces is to sound out how the public feels about the proposed regulations and the comprehensive list. Despite the initial reaction that Bill C-13 is yet another roadblock for developers, the opposite appears to be the case. The federal government has made a deliberate effort to smooth the process of environmental approval. The question of overlapping jurisdictions is being tackled in a positive manner. If a degree of harmonization between provincial and federal governments can be reached, then there is every possibility that the present regulatory morass will be seen as a part of history.