The Expert Panel’s Report on Environmental Assessment in Canada
June 1, 2017
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June 2017 Wildlands Advocate article, by Joanna Skrajny
I would like to take you back to the not-so-distant past. The year is 2012, which I bemoan as the year Canada’s environmental protections died. That was the year the federal government passed a 420-page omnibus budget bill. It was called “omnibus” because it did much more that present the government’s financial plans. It de-limbed Canada’s environmental legal tree. Bill C-38: the Jobs, Growth and Long Term Prosperity Act amended 60 laws and eliminated 6 others. Two thirds of this “budget” bill targeted major national environmental laws: the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act was replaced, protections provided by the Fisheries Act were stripped, the Navigable Waters Protections Act was diluted, the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act was repealed, and amendments to the Parks Canada Agency Act cut staff. The irony of the bill’s name shouldn’t have been lost on anyone.
