MiningWatch is one of eight leading environmental organizations that addressed this open letter to the Prime Minister regarding shortcomings in proposed regulations under the new federal Impact Assessment Act (the recently-passed bill C-69). We have been working on the update and modernization of federal impact assessment process since the review begin in 2016, and we believe that key aspects of the new Act represent an improvement over the existing environmental impact regime, the Harper government's Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (2012).
However, the proposed Regulations Designating Physical Activities (Project List) would not only fail to restore impact assessment oversight to the vast majority of projects within federal jurisdiction, but would actually reduce it in a number of impotant areas, including mining. This failure must be addressed in order to fulfill the Trudeau government’s promises and mandate to restore public confidence in impact assessment.