Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'm pleased to be here today, finally.
I hope that all committee members have a copy of my presentation. I would like to explain to you at this time how the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act works.
I thought I'd first give you a bit of a constitutional context. As you're probably aware, the environment is not really mentioned in our Constitution, but the courts have confirmed that this is a matter of shared responsibility, and that's a very important issue to remember as we go through this presentation.
Each order of government--provinces, territories, and the federal government--has responsibilities with respect to the environment and environmental assessment. These responsibilities require us to work together with our colleagues in other jurisdictions to ensure that environmental assessment is done correctly.
Federally, as you're no doubt aware, the government has responsibility for matters such as navigation and shipping, fisheries, migratory birds, and so forth. Provincially responsibilities relate more to local works and undertakings, in particular natural resources and matters of a local or a private nature.
The original federal environmental assessment process was set out in 1974. The process therefore goes back a long way. The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act did not come into force until 1995. It is triggered by federal decisions about proposed projects, either as the proponent, source of funds, land administrator or regulator. The CEA Act applies to projects.
Furthermore, the Cabinet Directive on the Environmental Assessment of Policy, Plan and Program Proposals is a non-legislated process that requires federal departments to conduct strategic environmental assessments. It should also be mentioned that the CEA Act has limited application north of the 60th parallel where processes arising out of constitutionally protected land claim agreements with aboriginal peoples have been or are being enacted through federal legislation.
So there is relatively limited application of our legislation north of the 60th parallel.
You should have in your deck a map that describes the environmental assessment regimes in the north. Each of the land claim areas has its own environmental assessment regime. In fact, currently the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act applies most generally in the Inuvialuit settlement area under that region's final agreement, and only in a very limited way in the rest of the northern territories.
Some key features of the Environmental Assessment Act are that it's a self-assessment process. Hence, departments that have decisions to make with respect to projects are responsible for undertaking those assessments. Approximately 6,000 to 7,000 assessments are conducted every year across the country. Almost all of those are what we call screenings. For projects with more significant environmental effects, we require that comprehensive studies be undertaken, which are more detailed assessments, or a review panel involving public hearings. The idea is that the level of assessment is geared towards the nature of the project and the level of environmental impact that could occur as a result of the project.
Recently, as you're certainly aware, aboriginal consultation has become a very important issue for the government, and we have recently looked to incorporate the government's aboriginal consultation responsibilities into the environmental assessment process.
In terms of continuous improvement, there are a number of things that have happened and are continuing to happen with respect to the implementation of our act. In 2005 a cabinet directive was developed on implementing CEA. Essentially the objectives were to ensure a more timely and predictable environmental assessment process as a result of concerns that had been raised by proponents of projects, provincial authorities, and others.
In 2007 there was another cabinet directive aimed at improving the performance of the regulatory system for major resource projects, including, for example, mines, pipelines, hydroelectric developments, and so forth. The objective was to establish an oversight body called the Major Projects Management Office to facilitate the environmental assessments and regulatory processes to ensure they were applied in an efficient and effective way.
More recently, in 2008, there was an amendment to the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, clarifying the relationship between the environmental assessment processes established under the land claim agreement and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, essentially so that the act would apply in a very limited way to transboundary projects, for example.
Then in 2009 there were a number of recommendations made by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment for the improved integration of federal, provincial, and territorial environmental assessment requirements to improve harmonization, efficiency, and the rigour of the environmental assessments that are undertaken.
Mr. Chairman, that's my presentation.
Thank you.