Federal Environmental Law Reform Picks Up Steam

The government recently announced the members it has appointed to the Review of the Environmental Assessment Process Expert Panel (the "EA Panel"), created to examine how environmental federal environmental assessments are conducted for large-scale resource projects.

The federal government has been under pressure from environmental groups and First Nation governments following a series of significant changes to Canada's environmental protection regime, including to the process for assessing large-scale resource projects. These changes were introduced by the prior Conservative government through two omnibus bills in 2012. Among other effects, these changes reduced environmental oversight over such projects so as to make the process more streamlined.