PDAC develops guidelines to protect fish

NEW HORIZONS

The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) is developing management practices for low-risk activities in fish habitat that will help streamline the regulatory process in the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO).

The statements are designed to cut red tape and save the exploration and mining industry both time and money.

In 2004, DFO developed an Environmental Process Modernization Plan. Designed to maximize opportunities for conserving and protecting fish habitat, it emphasizes timeliness in decision-making, and improves harmony between it and other regulatory processes. Working with the department are seven mining, oil and gas and forest products industry associations, including the PDAC.

The plan’s intent is to allow industry to self-manage low-risk activities according to agreed operational statements. DFO supports this approach because budget cutbacks have reduced its resources. Its primary concern is to manage and enforce the highest standards possible and if industry manages low-risk activities, DFO will be able to focus more attention on those that are high-risk.

The PDAC has hired a consultant to help it develop for sign-off by DFO five environmentally friendly standard practices for low-risk activities. Partially drawn from the principles of e3 Environmental Excellence in Exploration, the standard practices will be applied nationally.

The PDAC is the first of the industry associations to attempt to draw up such statements. “We will outline state-of-the-art practices that are currently being used by industry for low-risk activities and DFO will streamline their regulatory process,” says MaryAnn Mihychuk, PDAC director of regulatory affairs. “This will allow our projects to go ahead in a reasonable manner and will reduce the resources required by DFO to manage projects.”

The PDAC’s goal is to have the five standard practices completed by year-end. From these standard practices, the PDAC and DFO will develop operational statements and guidelines that will provide nationally consistent advice for implementation across the country. The statements will identify the measures needed to avoid harm to fish habitat for routine low-risk activities in or near water.

When the guidance offered in operational statements is followed, there will be no need for DFO to monitor the project, although DFO will periodically monitor the success of the operational statements.

DFO and the industry associations will also be addressing medium-risk and high-risk activities.

The preceding is an edited excerpt from In Brief, a quarterly publication of the Toronto-based Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada.