Update: Federal Impact Assessment Act Amendments Coming Into Force

On June 20, 2024, the omnibus federal budget Bill C-69 received royal assent.¹ As a result, the amendments to the Impact Assessment Act ("IAA") included in Bill C-69 came into force. A detailed discussion of the IAA amendments, which were crafted to address the Supreme Court of Canada's ("SCC") findings in Reference re: Impact Assessment Act², is set out in a previous post here. A detailed discussion of the SCC case can also be found in a previous post here.

Key changes in the IAA amendments include:

• Revising the definition of "effects within federal jurisdiction" in order to focus on "non-negligible adverse change" relating to matters of federal purview;
• Limiting the Minister's ability to designate projects to those which may cause adverse effects within federal jurisdiction or direct or incidental adverse effects;