Physical Activities Regulations — Regulations Amending the Impact Assessment Act

• Date: 03 September 2026
• Reference: DORS
• Published date: 09 September 2026
• Section: Part II - Official regulations
• Gazette Issue: Édition régulière - DORS/2026-182 à 183 and 185

Canada Gazette, Part II, Volume 160, Number 18

Registration
SOR/2026-185 September 3, 2026

IMPACT ASSESSMENT ACT

P.C. 2026-784 September 3, 2026

Her Excellency the Governor General in Council, on the recommendation of the Minister of the Environment, makes the annexed Regulations Amending the Physical Activities Regulations under paragraph 109(b)^{footnote a} of the Impact Assessment Act ^{footnote b}.

Regulations Amending the Physical Activities Regulations Amendments

1 (1) The definition international electrical transmission line in subsection 1(1) of the Physical Activities Regulations ^{footnote 1} is repealed.

(2) The definition new right of way in subsection 1(1) of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

new right of way

means land that is to be developed for a railway line or an all-season public highway and that is not alongside and contiguous to an area of land that was developed for an electrical transmission line, oil and gas pipeline, railway line or all-season public highway. (nouvelle emprise)

2 Subsection 2(1) of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

Physical activities — designated projects

2 (1) The physical activities that are set out in the schedule — other than the construction, operation, decommissioning and abandonment of a regulated facility as defined in section 2 of the Canadian Energy Regulator Act, if those activities are regulated under that Act — are designated for the purpose of the definition designated project in section 2 of the Impact Assessment Act.

3 Sections 30 to 33 of the schedule to the Regulations are repealed.

4 Section 39 of the schedule to the Regulations and the heading before it are replaced by the following:

Pipelines

5 Section 41 of the schedule to the Regulations is repealed.

Coming into Force

6 These Regulations come into force on the day on which they are registered.

REGULATORY IMPACT ANALYSIS STATEMENT

(This statement is not part of the Regulations.)

Issues

The Government of Canada has proposed to make changes to laws, regulations, and policies to simplify and improve the efficiency of the review processes for major projects. As part of these changes, responsibility for the assessment of certain projects is being assigned to the federal life cycle regulator responsible for regulating those projects.

Therefore, amendments to the Physical Activities Regulations (Project List) are required to remove project types that are currently subject to both the Impact Assessment Act (IAA) and the Canadian Energy Regulator Act (CERA). These projects would be subject to assessment and ongoing regulation by a single regulator under the CERA or would be assessed under the Building Canada Act if designated as a project of national interest.

Separate, targeted amendments to the Physical Activities Regulations (the Regulations) to remove certain entries will better ensure that the Project List is aligned with the IAA, as amended in 2024. Further amendments to the Project List to respond to the 2024 Project List Review and consultation will be proposed at a later date.

Background

The IAA came into force in 2019 and sets out processes to anticipate, identify, assess and address significant adverse effects within federal jurisdiction that may be caused by carrying out designated projects. The Regulations set out the classes of physical activities (i.e. types and sizes of projects) with the greatest potential to cause adverse effects within federal jurisdiction as designated for the purposes of the IAA.

The Canada Energy Regulator (CER) regulates international and interprovincial pipelines, international and designated interprovincial electrical transmission lines and some offshore renewable projects. This arm’s-length regulator is responsible for the life cycle of a project from early planning through construction, operation, and, ultimately, closure or abandonment. In 2019, the IAA introduced a requirement that the impact assessment of designated interprovincial or international pipelines or electrical transmission lines (i.e. those that require 75 km or more of new right of way) and certain offshore renewables under the CERA be conducted by an integrated review panel, where the requirements of both the IAA and the licensing process would be met. Since then, no assessment by an integrated review panel has ever been conducted for these projects. The CERA also came into effect in 2019. Changes introduced through that legislation included a new requirement for licensing decisions (that apply to all interprovincial or international pipelines and electrical transmission lines, and offshore renewables regulated under the CERA) to consider substantially the same factors as those assessed under the IAA. Under the CERA, the final public interest decision on pipelines or international electrical transmission lines that require 75 km or more of new right of way is also made by the Governor in Council, as it is under the IAA. For CER-regulated offshore renewables, the CER is the final decision-maker.

In the document entitled Getting Major Projects Built in Canada – Discussion Paper on Proposed Legislative, Regulatory, and Policy Reforms, the Government of Canada proposed to assign responsibility for the assessment of all projects regulated under the CERA to the CER, rather than an integrated review panel as required under the IAA, in order to ensure a simpler process by a single regulator. This would be accomplished through the amendments to remove these projects from the Project List, so they are no longer subject to the IAA. Other changes proposed in the Discussion Paper would require legislative changes which may be introduced following consultations.

The IAA was amended in 2024 to respond to the decision made by the Supreme Court of Canada on October 13, 2023, which found that parts of the IAA went beyond federal jurisdiction under the Constitution. The IAA amendments narrowed the definition of adverse effects within federal jurisdiction, focussed decision-making provisions squarely on adverse effects within federal jurisdiction, and increased reliance on provincial processes and co-operation in federal assessment. The Project List was reviewed in 2024, including to ensure that it aligns with these features of the amended Act.

Objective

The purpose of the Regulations Amending the Physical Activities Regulations (the amended Regulations) is to

• simplify the project decision process for interprovincial pipelines by assigning the responsibility for assessing these, and certain other projects, to a single federal regulator; and
• better ensure that the Project List is aligned with the amended IAA.

Description

The following project types are being removed from the Regulations. As a result, these projects will no longer be subject to the IAA:

• International and interprovincial pipelines;
• International and interprovincial electrical transmission lines;
• Offshore renewable energy projects that are regulated under the CERA;
• Oil and gas pipelines and facilities in national parks and protected areas that are regulated under the CERA;
• Oil and gas facilities that are functionally integrated into a federal work or undertaking that is regulated under the CERA;
• In situ oil sands extraction facilities with a bitumen production capacity of 2 000 m3/day or more, in a province without provincial legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions from oil sands; and
• Fossil fuel-fired power generating facilities.

Regulatory development Projects regulated under the CERA

In the 2025 Speech from the Throne, the Government of Canada committed to making decisions on major projects within two years. On May 8, 2026, the Government of Canada published the document entitled Getting Major Projects Built in Canada – Discussion Paper on Proposed Legislative, Regulatory, and Policy Reforms, seeking feedback from the public, stakeholders, provinces, territories and Indigenous groups. The paper included a...