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ARTICLE · 10 MAY 2024

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Amendments To Impact Assessment Act Released – Triage Or Major Surgery?

Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
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Draft amendments to the federal Impact Assessment Act (the IAA or the Act) were released on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, as part of a Notice of Ways and Means Motion...

CanadaEnvironment
Brad Gilmour
Brad Gilmour
Sander Duncanson
Sander Duncanson
Sean Sutherland
Sean Sutherland
Maureen Killoran
Maureen Killoran
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Draft amendments to the federal Impact Assessment Act (the IAA or the Act) were released on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, as part of a Notice of Ways and Means Motion [PDF] previewing implementation of the 2024 federal budget. The amendments are intended to update Canada's federal environmental impact assessment regime to respond to the October 2023 reference opinion of the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC), in which the majority found the IAA largely unconstitutional (IAA Reference).1 We have prepared an unofficial comparison version [PDF] of the IAA as modified by the proposed amendments for your convenience.

The amendments are "relatively surgical" (to use the Minister's terminology shortly after the release of the IAA Reference).2 The 32 proposed amendments do the minimum to address the most significant concerns identified by the SCC. Most notably, the amendments

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