ENV201H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Status Quo

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26 Apr 2018
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Ch 5
The 35-plus years since the inception of EA in Canada have been transformative
(Meredith, 2004). Legislated EA processes have been created in many jurisdictions
throughout the country. The EA concept has moved well beyond federal and
provincial levels of government and is practiced by aboriginal governments,
incorporated regions, municipalities, cities, and even institutions. Decision makers,
EA practitioners, and academics now have considerable experiences with EA. This
experience, in turn, has generally improved implementation. Recognition and
serious consideration exist for the many challenges to achieving effective, efficient,
and equitable implementation of EA, necessary to ensure that EA results in
thoughtful planning about the environmental implications and overall sustainability
of human activities. Canadians have made significant contributions to EA practice,
nationally and internationally.
Where does Canada place in the stages of the evolution of EA noted at the beginning
of the chapter? The answer is not easy, because each jurisdiction tends to practice
its own brand of EA. EA legislation may be similar, and the basic process steps
followed the same, but the guidance, policy, and practice in jurisdictions are often
quite different. Nevertheless, Canadian jurisdictions have collectively moved beyond
stage 1, the reactive stage, in part because each EA process calls for proactive
thinking before a project is approved and requires some involvement of the public,
and not just by affected industries and government, in the process. Most
jurisdictions in Canada would probably consider themselves somewhere between
stage 3 and 4. In other words, they do proactively identify impacts in a formal way,
and integrate this information in a planning context that considers alternatives,
various impact types, and notions of sustainability.
A closer look at practice, however, raises doubts about how far we really have
evolved beyond stage 1. Many conflicts and uncertainties outlined above underscore
this view, as does the introduction of CEAA 2012. For example, the move towards a
greater emphasis on issues of regulatory approvals rather than planning greatly
affects the extent to which sustainability considerations can be made, as does the
limited consideration of cumulative effects, the marginalization of the public’s voice
in the process of decision making, and disagreements over scope.
Moving forward to embrace concepts such as community based assessment,
sustainability assessment, and strategic assessment, while limiting discretion, will
require significant political will no matter how much closer these changes bring us
towards a sustainable and resilient society. EA can open political decisions to public
scrutiny in a way that makes some politicians uncomfortable. This opening of the
decision process is especially problematic when the projects involved may provide
much needed jobs, taxes, and other economic spin-offs. Status quo thinking or,
worse, thinking that undermines the basic foundations of EA will not move us to the
next generation of assessment or to sustainability and resilience. Indeed, the public
has often had to turn the courts to try to ensure that basic EA principles, such as
public participation, are upheld. The red Chris case firmly establishes that the courts
have become a last resort for the public when those responsible for implementation
refuse to embrace the value of EA and instead, at best, turn it into a paper exercise
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Document Summary

The 35-plus years since the inception of ea in canada have been transformative (meredith, 2004). Legislated ea processes have been created in many jurisdictions throughout the country. The ea concept has moved well beyond federal and provincial levels of government and is practiced by aboriginal governments, incorporated regions, municipalities, cities, and even institutions. Ea practitioners, and academics now have considerable experiences with ea. This experience, in turn, has generally improved implementation. Recognition and serious consideration exist for the many challenges to achieving effective, efficient, and equitable implementation of ea, necessary to ensure that ea results in thoughtful planning about the environmental implications and overall sustainability of human activities. Canadians have made significant contributions to ea practice, nationally and internationally. The answer is not easy, because each jurisdiction tends to practice its own brand of ea. Ea legislation may be similar, and the basic process steps followed the same, but the guidance, policy, and practice in jurisdictions are often quite different.

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