Impact Assessment Agency of Canada

History

The agency was established in 1994 prior to the adoption of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act in 1995 by the Parliament of Canada. The legislation is the legal basis for the federal environmental assessment process in Canada.

On April 26, 2012, the Government introduced Bill C-38, the Jobs, Growth and Long-Term Prosperity Act, which repealed the existing Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and replaced it with a new Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012. Bill C-38 received Royal Assent on 29 June 2012 and came into force on 6 July 2012.

The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada was previously known as the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (). The change in name came into force on August 28, 2019, along with other consequential legislative amendments under an omnibus bill titled An Act to enact the Impact Assessment Act and the Canadian Energy Regulator Act, to amend the Navigation Protection Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts, which received royal assent on June 21, 2019.

Projects

Impact assessments conducted by the agency are subject to a five-stage process:

Planning Phase

A project proponent submits an initial description of the project (Initial Project Description) to the agency. The Agency then shares this information with the public and Indigenous peoples, who are invited to provide information and contribute to planning the assessment.

Impact Statement Phase

The agency provides the project proponent with information requirements which the proponent must fulfill prior to moving to the next assessment phase. The proponent's response makes up a "[d]etailed technical document prepared by the Proponent" responding to the agency's information requirements.

Impact Assessment Phase

The agency analyzes the proponent's response for completeness, including consultation with the public, Indigenous Peoples and other federal departments "that may be in possession of specialist or expert information or knowledge." The agency then develops an Impact Assessment Report which considers "the information and analysis by the proponent and associated perspectives including of expert federal departments, Indigenous groups, the public and provincial, territorial, or Indigenous jurisdictions." This report is shared with decision-makers to inform their decision to approve or reject the project.

Decision-Making Phase

The agency's work informs the Minister or Governor in Council's decision on whether a project's adverse impacts are in the public interest. Decision statements set out the rationale for the decision.

Post-Decision Phase

If a project is approved, the agency must verify compliance with the decision statement and correct any incidents of non-compliance.

Policy and guidance

Cumulative Effects

The CEAA defines Cumulative Effects Assessment as "[a]n assessment of the incremental effects of an action on the environment when the effects are combined with those from other past, existing and future actions." "Cumulative effects are changes to the environment that are caused by an action in combination with other past, present and future human actions."

In 1994, the CEAA published A Reference Guide for the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act: Addressing Cumulative Environmental Effects.

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

References

1. "GC InfoBase".
2. "Executive team".
3. "GC InfoBase".
4. Canada, Impact Assessment Agency of. (2012-01-16). "Canadian Environmental Assessment Act: An Overview".
5. "C-38 (41-1) - LEGISinfo - Parliament of Canada".
6. (21 August 2019). "Canada Gazette, Part 2, Volume 153, Number 17: Order Fixing August 28, 2019 as the Day on which that Act Comes into Force".
7. Branch, Legislative Services. (2020-01-14). "Consolidated federal laws of canada, An Act to enact the Impact Assessment Act and the Canadian Energy Regulator Act, to amend the Navigation Protection Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts".
8. Canada, Impact Assessment Agency of. (2021-11-08). "Impact Assessment Process Overview".
9. Canada, Impact Assessment Agency of. (2021-11-08). "Impact Assessment Process Overview".