On June 21, 2019, the federal government of Canada (Canada)
passed Bill C-69, new legislation that will materially reform the
federal environmental assessment regime in Canada. The reforms will
see the National Energy Board (NEB) replaced by the Canadian Energy
Regulator (CER) and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act,
2012 (CEAA 2012) replaced by a new Impact Assessment
Act (IAA).
See our initial review of the proposed reforms.
Bill C-69 was subject to a review by the Standing Senate
Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources. On June
5, 2019, after hearing from interested parties across the country,
including members of Osler’s Regulatory, Environment,
Aboriginal and Land Group, the full Senate passed a suite of close
to 190 amendments to Bill C-69. Canada agreed to accept roughly
half of these, but largely rejected the proposed amendments put
forward by Conservative senators as well as several amendments
proposed by independent (formerly
