First of all, public consultations are a very important part of the whole environmental assessment. But I would argue that the environmental assessment process per se is only a small part of developing the social license. A big part of that responsibility rests with the proponents in their ongoing relationship with the stakeholders, which they build around any given project.
Government's role is to set the standards, make sure that the project can move forward without affecting the environment negatively, and establish the social discussion. The ongoing monitoring that goes on after that is also part of the process. Social license is actually a great big package of which EA provides only one small part. It is arguably a bit of a gatekeeper to the rest of the regulatory process.