Environmental protection is being eroded in Canada — as are our rights to public input and transparent decision making.

On March 12^th the Canadian Senate passed amendments to the Navigable Waters Protection Act (NWPA) that is expected to limit protection of rivers and streams nationwide. The amendments will provide significant discretion to the federal Minister of Transportation to redefine which types of projects (e.g., small dams) and which classes of water bodies (e.g., small creeks) will be exempt from the NWPA approval process. These exemptions will effectively remove the opportunity for public input and environmental assessment for these types of projects and, thereby, significantly undermine public oversight for a number of development proposals that will affect waterways.

On that same day, the government made changes that removed environmental protections for major construction projects. Government announced--without a public notice period—two new regulations under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA), which will exempt certain types of projects from environmental assessment. Although CEAA is imperfect in the eyes of many, further weakening of this legal tool to assess projects for potential damage to the environment takes Canada back many steps in environmental protection.

For an excellent analysis of these changes under CEAA, visit Eviscerating of Federal Environmental Assessment in Canada by Arlene Kwasniak, a law professor at the University of Calgary.

Although the government did not consult the public on these regulation changes or allow for a public comment period (a 30 day public comment period is required for introduction of new regulation), these changes take effect immediately and there may be opportunity to revisit these changes under CEAA's seven-year review in 2010.

The government anticipates these changes will exempt about 2000 projects over the next two years. Exemption of these projects removes significant environmental oversight and has the potential to lead to significant and lasting damage to Canada's environmental wealth. This exemption also infringes on Canadians' right to voice their concerns about certain projects, a right that is inherent in environmental assessment processes.