The Globe and Mail reports this morning that, “A leaked government document outlining the proposed changes to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act indicates Environment Minister Jim Prentice has asked for a bill ‘overhauling’ the legislation as soon as possible.”
CHANGES WOULD MEAN 95% DROP IN FEDERAL ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENTS “Under the new system, the government should ‘expect to capture 200-300 projects per year,’ the document states. That would represent a more than 95 per cent drop from the roughly 6,000 federal environmental assessments that currently take place each year.”
THIS FOLLOWS CHANGES TO THE NAVIGABLE WATERS PROTECTION ACT “The changes would come on the heels of a similar change included in the budget legislation that passed this week, which reduced the ability to trigger environmental assessments through the Navigable Waters Protection Act.”
PRENTICE SAYS RULES DELAY STIMULUS SPENDING Environment Minister Jim Prentice “said the proposed changes are in response to the provinces, who recently told Prime Minister Stephen Harper that overlapping environmental rules will delay public stimulus spending from creating jobs.”
NDP FOUND THAT CONSERVATIVES MAY DO AWAY WITH ASSESSMENTS FOR PROJECTS UNDER $10 MILLION “The issue surfaced in January when the NDP released an internal government e-mail indicating Ottawa wanted to do away with environmental assessments for projects that cost less than $10-million.”
SIERRA CLUB OF CANADA
The leaked government document outlining the proposed changes to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act was released to the media by the Sierra Club of Canada.
The full article can be read at
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090314.ASSESS14/TPStory/National