ENVI Committee Report

For the last 30 years, governments have been rethinking their approach to decision making, recognizing that the well-being of people is intimately dependent on the well-being of the environment. Economic development and its benefits can no longer be viewed in isolation from the obvious damage that this development has caused to the environment, and the limitations that it has imposed on the capacity of future generations to meet their needs. Through many international meetings and studies, from Stockholm in 1972 to Johannesburg in 2002, the response to this new reality has become clear: decisions can be made and, more than this, must be made, that can meet the economic needs of people without damaging their equally important social and environmental needs. Indeed, the damage to the environment that has already occurred requires that decisions now be sought that may well put environmental and social needs ahead of those that are primarily economic. This is the challenge of sustainable development.

Governments in Canada, and around the world, have agreed to take on the responsibility to govern with sustainable development as a core principle in decision making. A well-designed and implemented system for assessing the environmental consequences of policies, decisions and projects is an absolute requirement in meeting this responsibility. A decade ago, the Government and Parliament of Canada declared their commitment to sustainable development and a healthy environment by enacting the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA).

Further to CEAA, in 1998, the federal, provincial and territorial governments (with the exception of Québec which declined to sign in the absence of recognition of the distinct nature of its procedure for the examination and assessment of environmental impacts) signed the Canada-Wide Accord on Environmental Harmonization which, in part, addresses the issues of cooperation, uncertainty and duplication of effort associated with the environmental assessment of proposed projects.¹

Environmental assessment (EA) is declared in CEAA to be,

an effective means of integrating environmental factors into planning and decision-making processes in a manner that promotes sustainable development.

Almost a decade later, the central question is whether federal EA is making a significant contribution to sustainable development and being used to make decisions that benefit the environment. If the answer to this question is no, then changing the EA process must be given the highest priority; if EA is not functioning properly, a central tool in achieving sustainable development is lost. The world and the well-being of its inhabitants cannot afford any more delays.