Environment committee  Perhaps I'll just underline the environmental justice aspect, which is an important consideration—again, on the theme of levelling the playing field—in taking into account that environmental impacts don't actually impact everybody in the same way. If proposed section 63 were sensitive to this, it would be a significant improvement to the bill.

Environment committee  Really briefly, I would say that public participation is meaningful when it has a real opportunity to impact both the conduct of the assessment and the final decision. One thing I will draw the committee's attention to is that the scoping decision in proposed section 22 is right now left to the discretion of the minister.

Environment committee  I'm happy to address that. As I suggested in my submissions, the idea of a dedicated review tribunal to, in the first instance, review final decisions made under proposed section 65 of the bill is a good idea in my view. Certainly, courts are the default body and can turn their minds to these issues, but to have a body that is both independent and has some expertise in environmental assessments could also be helpful.

Environment committee  In addition to my point about clarifying the decision criteria in proposed section 63, the bottom line I discussed, which is absolutely critical, I would also underline something I didn't get a chance to mention, which is the importance of the central role played by regional and strategic assessments.

Environment committee  One thing that certainly does spring to mind is that we are not—and this has been confirmed recently by the commissioner of the environment—making sufficient progress towards meeting our international climate goals.

Environment committee  Well, it certainly does.

Environment committee  Environmental assessment plays a very crucial role in understanding and ensuring that projects, in fact, help to achieve our climate goals rather than derogate from them. It's fairly clear that we are not on track to meet those goals so far. An act that explicitly contemplates climate and makes it a bottom line should go a long way towards improving that particular indicator.

Environment committee  The problem with excessive discretion is the uncertainty that it creates. If you go into a process without understanding the benchmarks by which you're going to be judged, neither the industry that wants to get a project built, nor other participants can have any confidence that the outcome will reflect their concerns or will contribute to sustainability, which is the purpose of the act.

Environment committee  I would just add one brief point, which is that if it is proposed to substitute the federal process with something new that may be less familiar to participants, there should be an opportunity to comment on the form that assessment will take, which would involve a description of the method of substitution to be posted on the website created by the act, and an appropriate time for the public to comment and potentially adjust it to reflect the needs of the particular assessment.

Environment committee  If we're talking about a review of a report or a decision, after the fact, clearly the agency itself is a bit too embedded in the initial determination to be impartial. If we're talking about something like mediation, which existed under CEAA 1992, then potentially, there's a role there.

Environment committee  My apologies. I'm doing my very best to stay within the time limit.

Environment committee  Thank you for that, Madam Chair. Let me take a step back and provide an example from our work relating to environmental justice. In “chemical valley”, which is located just outside Sarnia, Ontario, sirens can blare at any time of the day to warn people to stay indoors when all too frequent pollution incidents occur.

Environment committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair and committee members, for inviting Ecojustice to provide suggestions to the committee on Bill C-69. Ecojustice is a national environmental law charity providing free legal services to Canadian conservation groups, concerned citizens, and first nations.