Environment Committee on Sept. 25th, 2025

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

I appreciate your time today. Thank you, witnesses, for coming.

Related to Bill C-5, and now that the major projects office has been announced, I wonder what your agency is doing to ensure that there's not going to be duplication of effort among provincial agencies and assessments that have already taken place, or potential future assessments.

[Patricia Brady]

Between provinces and the federal government, one of our priorities right now is working on co-operation agreements with the provinces to implement a “one project, one review” approach, which means that a project would be subject to both a federal and a provincial act. From a proponent's perspective, and from the perspective of indigenous groups that we consult, we'll have one process that will apply.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Are you working on that and developing the rules?

[Patricia Brady]

We currently have a co-operation agreement in place with British Columbia—

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

That's right, but not with the rest of Canada.

[Patricia Brady]

We now have a draft agreement with New Brunswick, so we'll begin implementing.... The federal government committed to be ready to strike these agreements within six months from the Speech from the Throne, so we are hopeful. By the end of fall, in the coming weeks, is when we've said the federal side would be ready to start implementing them, and federal—

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Are you going to be ready to start implementing them by that deadline?

[Patricia Brady]

With interested provinces, absolutely.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Are there provinces that aren't interested?

[Patricia Brady]

There are provinces that are more advanced in the discussions than others.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Do you anticipate some provinces won't be ready?

[Patricia Brady]

Interested or ready on different timelines, potentially—

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

But they won't make the deadline.

[Patricia Brady]

I should say that even absent an agreement, we have the flexibility in our act to rely on what provinces are doing in their assessments and to take those as equivalent, by default, within ours.

It would be better under a co-operation agreement, where the rules are clearer and the full suite of tools in the Impact Assessment Act can be used to defer to provinces, but even absent an agreement with another province, we will be able—and we have already started—to rely on what provinces are doing and take those as equivalent in our assessments.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Yes, as a partial...and just taking it into your assessment as is.

[Patricia Brady]

That's right. We've reduced our information requirements significantly by doing that, so that's one of the key ways we'll find efficiencies.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

I'm going to move fast, because time is limited.

How do you anticipate resolving conflicts among provinces that come to a different conclusion?

[Patricia Brady]

It's happened maybe once in the history of impact assessment and environmental assessment, so it's a very unlikely outcome.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Do you anticipate it to be more or less likely in the future, considering the state of the nation?

[Patricia Brady]

If we're in a “one project, one review” world and we're both relying on the same information to make decisions, I think it should be highly unlikely that there would be different outcomes.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

I would hope, but....

[Patricia Brady]

As well, I would mention that the federal decision, as a result of the Supreme Court decision and amendments that were made in 2024 to our act, is very narrowly focused on the federal effects of projects.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

How do you square that circle, then, with federal assessment requirements, provincial assessment requirements, duplication of efforts, and delay in the timeline to approval?

[Patricia Brady]

Again, it's through relying on what the province is doing to meet any federal requirements. The province may also be doing it, in which case we're committed to relying on them. Some provinces prefer to rely on what the federal government is doing, so our co-operation agreements will allow for that as well.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

I'm just trying to piece this together on the fly.

Who would be the adjudicator if there's conflict between a provincial agency or a province and...?