Challenges Facing Project Developers Who Trigger The 2012 Canadian Environmental Assessment Act

Pipelines, mines, ports, railways, reactors and power dams make federal environmental assessments prominent in current public affairs.

Yet most of these examples of federal EA deal with legislation that was repealed in 2012 and replaced by the current Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012 (CEAA/12).¹ Today, as we pass the third anniversary of the new regime, we still lack any court judgments interpreting its provisions. Recent important decisions continue to be about the earlier 1992 statute.

Is it a mistake to treat the 2012 EA law as similar to the 1992 Act that shares its name?   

Yes. At a high level, both regimes appear similar: both focus on assessing significant adverse environmental effects. However, in other key respects, CEAA/12 departs from the approach of CEAA/92 and introduces new principles to federal EA practice.