An Overview of the Impact Assessment Act

• Author: Meinha rd Doelle an d A John Sinclair
• Pages: 53-69

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 3

An Overview of the Impact Assessment Act

Meinhard Doelle and A John Sinclair

A. INTRODUCTION

As discussed in the preceding chapters, the federal legislation that

underpins impact assessment (IA) in Canada has continued to evolve

and most recently has taken the form of the Impact Assessment Act (IAA).1

The reform process that led to the enactment of the IAA is discussed in

more detail in Chapter 4. The process started with mandate letters from

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to his new Cabinet in 2015.2 In 2016, the

minister of environment and climate change struck the Multi-Inter-

est Advisory Committee, composed of representatives from Indigen-

ous, industry, and environmental non-governmental organizations, to

advise her and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency on the

new Act. The minister then established the four-person Expert Panel

for the Review of Environmental Assessment Processes (Expert Panel) to

consult the public and report on how to restore public trust in IA and

1 SC 2019, c 28, s 1.

2 See, for example, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Catherine McKenna, Minister of

Environment and Climate Change, “Minister of Environment and Climate Change

Mandate Letter” (12 November 2015), online: Oce of the Prime Minister

https://pm.gc.ca/en/mandate-letters/2015/11/12/archived-minister-environment-and-

climate-change-mandate-letter.

      54

otherwise meet the stated goals of the reform eort. The government

followed the Panel’s 2017 report with a discussion paper in June 2017.3

The formal legislative process started in the fall of 2017 with a

memorandum to Cabinet seeking approval to dra new legislation.

Once the bill was introduced in February 2018, it was referred to pub-

lic hearings held by the House of Commons Standing Committee on

Environment and Sustainable Development, made up of members of

Parliament from all parties. The bill passed third reading in June 2018

and was sent to the Senate for review and approval. The Senate Standing

Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources held

public hearings in early 2019 and proposed further amendments, many

of which would have weakened the bill and were rejected by the House

of Commons. The government passed the bill just before the end of

the last Parliamentary session on June 21, before the fall 2019 federal

election. The Act came into force in August 2019 along with regulations

critical for its implementation.

The purpose of this chapter is to oer a high-level overview of the

IAA. Many elements of the Act are considered in detail in Part II of

this book. Here we oer an overview of the key components of the IAA,

organized around ve key elements of IA regime design: triggering the

assessment process, scoping, process options and design, decision mak-

ing, and post-decision follow-up.4 It is important to note at the outset

that although the focus in this chapter is on the assessment process for

designated projects, the Act includes other important processes that are

considered in some detail in Part II of the book. A separate part of the

Act deals with projects on federal lands and outside Canada. In addition,

there are separate provisions for regional and strategic assessments.5

3 Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Environmental and Regulatory

Reviews: Discussion Paper, (Ottawa: Environment and Climate Change Canada, June

2017), online: Government of Canada www.canada.ca/en/services/environment/

conservation/assessments/environmental-reviews/share-your-views/proposed-

approach/discussion-paper.html.

4 See Meinhard Doelle, The Federal Environmental Assessment Process: A Guide and

Critique (Markham, ON: LexisNexis Canada, 2008); Kevin Hanna, ed, Environmental

Impact Assessment: Practice and Participation, 3d ed (Don Mills, ON: Oxford University

Press, 2016) at Part II; Bram Noble, Environmental Impact Assessment: A Guide to Princi-

ples and Practice, 3d ed (Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2015).

5 The requirements for projects on federal lands and projects outside Canada are

discussed in detail in Chapter 18, and separate processes for regional and strategic

assessments are considered in chapters 11 and 17.