Considering the Potential for Meaningful Public Participation Under Canada's Impact Assessment Act

• Author: A John Sinclair and Alan P Diduck
• Pages: 326-345

326

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Considering the Potential for Meaningful

Public Participation Under Canada’s Impact

Assessment Act

A John Sinclair and Alan P Diduck*

A. INTRODUCTION

Ensuring that the general public, stakeholder organizations, and other

levels of government have a voice in decisions around development

activities has long been a goal of the Canadian government.1 For many, a

high watermark in this regard was the Berger Inquiry, which took place

in the 1970s in relation to a proposal to build a gas pipeline along the

Mackenzie Valley.2 Thomas Berger and his team did many new things,

particularly in terms of public involvement, that were a departure from

the past and set a benchmark for the future:

• Environmental and Indigenous organizations received funding

to present their own expert witnesses at the formal hearings held

in Yellowknife — a rst.

* Research supporting this chapter was funded by the Social Science and Humanities

Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

1 Meaningful public participation involves objectives, principles, methods, and out-

comes that are broadly applicable in Canada. For specic principles, rights, issues, and

institutional arrangements pertaining to Indigenous peoples and governments, see

chapters 6 and 9.

2 DJ Gamble, “The Berger Inquiry: An Impact Assessment Process” Science 199:4332

(3March 1978) 946; Robert Page, Northern Development: The Canadian Dilemma

(Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1986).

Considering the Potential for Meaningful Public Participation Under Canada’s IAA | 327

• Hearings were organized in more than thirty Dene, Inuit, and

non-Aboriginal communities across the Northwest Territories

so that residents could oer testimony.

• The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation created an Aboriginal

news team that broadcast nightly reports from the inquiry in six

languages.

• Hearings were also organized in cities across southern Canada

so that all Canadians could express their views.

• The inquiry’s nal report, released on 9 May 1977, was a bestseller,

with 10,000 copies in circulation by the end of the rst week.3

Since the late 1970s, many reports, journal papers, and other publi-

cations have been written about the important role that environmental

assessment (EA) processes can play in ensuring sound participation in

decision making.4 There are now also many practice manuals, regula-

tory guidance documents, and policy briefs that provide direction on

public participation in assessments.5 These recognize that the role of

the public in EA has evolved signicantly, especially as the focus has

shied from a technical exercise of predicting biophysical impacts of

3 First Nations Study Program, “Berger Inquiry,” online: University of British Columbia

https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/berger_inquiry/; “Hundreds Testify Before

Berger” CBC, online: www.cbc.ca/player/play/1722833856.

4 Ciaran O’Faircheallaigh, “Public Participation and Environmental Impact Assessment:

Purposes, Implications, and Lessons for Public Policy Making” (2010) 30:1 Environ-

mental Impact Assessment Review 19; Richard K Morgan, “Environmental Impact

Assessment: The State of the Art” (2012) 30:1 Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal 5;

David P Lawrence, Impact Assessment: Practical Solutions to Recurrent Problems and Con-

temporary Challenges (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2013); A John Sinclair & Alan P

Diduck, “Public Participation in Canadian Environmental Assessment: Enduring Chal-

lenges and Future Directions” in Kevin S Hanna, ed, Environmental Impact Assessment:

Practice and Participation (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2016) 65.

5 International Association for Public Participation, “IAP2 Core Values” (2014), online

(pdf): www.iap2canada.ca/Resources/Documents/0702-Foundations-Core-Values-MW-

rev1.pdf; Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, “Public Participation Guide,”

online: www.canada.ca/en/impact-assessment-agency/services/policy-guidance/

practitioners-guide-impact-assessment-act/guidance-public-particaption-impact.html;

Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD Due Diligence Guid-

ance for Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement in the Extractive Sector (2017), online: www.

oecd.org/publications/oecd-due-diligence-guidance-for-meaningful-stakeholder-

engagement-in-the-extractive-sector-9789264252462-en.html; Asian Development

Bank, Strengthening Participation for Development Results: An Asian Development Bank

Guide to Participation (2012), online: www.adb.org/documents/strengthening-

participation-development-results-asian-development-bank-guide-participation.