Hi. Thank you very much for this opportunity.
I am Jennifer Jackson, executive director of the Canadian Water and Wastewater Association.
The Canadian Water and Wastewater Association, or CWWA, as we are more colloquially known, would like to present our views on the statutory or seven-year review of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.
This is the first time CWWA has presented before the standing committee on this subject. However, we have been regularly consulted by staff of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency on proposed changes that may affect our sector.
The CWWA is a unique industrial trade association. We were founded on the recommendation of Health Canada and Environment Canada staff with the assistance of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. This occurred 25 years ago; this year we are celebrating our 25th anniversary. CWWA has evolved into the national voice of Canada's water industry.
We are comprised of utility members from small, medium, and large municipalities all across Canada and utility commissions, equipment suppliers, and environmental consulting and engineering companies that provide services to our members. We also represent Canada's water industry both nationally and internationally.
Our members provide drinking water, waste water, and storm water services to Canadians through the provision of critical infrastructure. We have members in all the provinces and territories of Canada. The water and waste water industry in Canada has been estimated at $10 billion nationwide, with our members being responsible for almost $7 billion annually.
Most of our members operate on limited municipal budgets in a not-for-profit context. We are the voice of the professional management charged with providing what is largely acknowledged as invisible infrastructure in Canada. Due to the diversity of size and geographic location, each of our utility members faces different challenges in balancing environmental protection and public health goals.
Concerning the CEAA review, CWWA municipal and utility members are in a unique position of both conducting, and benefiting from, effective environmental assessments. If others, usually upstream of facilities, conduct an environmental assessment and the resulting projects negatively affect water quality, the services of our members' drinking water or waste water operations may also be impacted. However, most of my comments today will be concerning the EA process. This is because our members routinely conduct environmental assessments that may be carried out under provincial, territorial, or federal EA legislation.
Canadian municipal water and waste water projects may be captured under the jurisdictional purview of CEAA. Applicable triggers include federal fish habitat permits under the Fisheries Act. Water projects also may affect species protected under the Species at Risk Act and the Migratory Birds Convention Act. Often, water projects may impact federal lands or CEAA is triggered by municipalities receiving federal government infrastructure funding. The construction of new plants or major expansions of existing water or waste water treatment plants will also generally trigger provincial EA, municipal class environmental assessment, or equivalent permitting processes.
I am here today to talk about two main sector concerns: the EA process and harmonization.
In regard to the process, the federal EA approval is just one step in a series of required permitting approvals for complex municipal projects. The federal regulating departments will not entertain applications and will not issue regulatory permits until after the federal EA approval is obtained.
Our members were clear that there are frustrations and an increased amount of time in dealing with projects that involve both the federal and provincial EA processes. They report that involvement of the federal EA process in their projects tends to add considerable time and of course considerable costs. In the case of the Halifax Harbour Solutions Project, which involved the creation of three new sewage treatment plants, it took four years to obtain the federal approval in 2003. We are told that accounted for between $1 million and $2 million in additional costs, including the required follow-up monitoring programs.
Regulatory certainty is a theme that is dear to the hearts of our members. In 2010, we supported the establishment of timelines in the comprehensive study regulations, which have now been implemented. However, when we asked our members about imposing timelines during federal screenings, which is the classification that affects the vast majority of water and waste water projects, the reaction was mixed.
Within the screening stage, environmental impacts can vary from project to project due to differing locations and the sensitivity of the environment. In most cases, the identified mitigation measures tend to mean that best management practices are implemented. However, the advantages of a screening process are that in almost every project, it does help the proponent identify site-specific mitigation and adaptation practices that can and will and should be implemented. The required work varies depending on the locale and the type of proposal.
As a result, we conclude that more work may be needed to see whether or not legislative timeframes can be inserted and effectively implemented in the screening process. CWWA is willing to work with the CEA Agency and the Minister of the Environment to see if there is a way to insert legislative timeframes into the process in a way that balances the needs of our members in managing projects and those of the CEA Act.
In regard to harmonization, as CEAA has evolved over the years there has been recognition of significant overlap between the federal and provincial EA processes. Both promote meaningful public participation and evaluation of a project's potential negative adverse impacts on the environment.
In 1998, the federal government and all provinces, except Quebec, signed the Canada-wide accord on environmental harmonization. As of today, all of the provinces and territories have entered into the subagreement on environmental assessment, with the exception of Quebec.
In theory, then, EA processes at both levels should be planning processes used by the proponents, whether that proponent is the federal government, a municipality, or a private sector individual or organization.
In its purest sense, harmonization should lead to one project assessment, negotiated schedules between the parties, one consultation process, and, if necessary, one public hearing process.
In consultation with practitioners in the field, CWWA has been told that harmonization has had mixed results and it has not had the desired impact. The reasons for this are varied, and in our view they are as follows.
The provincial EA processes tend to be a planning process. They tend to be a forward-looking analysis incorporating the needs and alternatives to the problem that's trying to be addressed. The federal EA process does not specifically incorporate this at the application stage, and as such the federal EA process is usually started and applied for later by the project proponent.
The EA process itself has to be distinguished from the regulatory decisions that follow the EA process. However, in practice, these two items get quite mixed up. Determination of the federal permitting triggers in the federal EA process are sometimes more suited to the stage of detailed design engineering. At that point the decision has already been made and a preferred alternative or option has been selected. Thus, many managers and practitioners in the field describe federal environmental assessment as a back-end process that requires more detailed work up front, making the harmonization between federal and provincial processes challenging.
The federal EA process, the CEAA agency, and the relatively recent Red Chris mining decision by the Supreme Court of Canada have provided much more guidance to proponents on the need and requirement to perform cumulative impact analysis. Until recently, this has not been emphasized as much in the provincial process.
I'll skip our recommendations and end by saying that municipalities are partners in the achievement of environmental goals in Canada. We look forward to a positive and collaborative relationship with you on this review of the act and any future work tasked to the Minister of the Environment and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.
Thank you.