Question Period Note: Impact Assessment Act: Amendments, Regulatory Efficiency and Provincial Cooperation

The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) is seizing every opportunity to increase efficiency and accelerate the pace of federal impact assessments and permitting, while ensuring major projects are built responsibly.

• Impact assessments provide a clear and open process to ensure major projects get built responsibly, minimize harm to the environment, and protect Indigenous rights.
• Assessments are not about whether projects should be built, but how best to build them.
• Our government is committed to advancing nation-building projects of national interest, including conventional energy projects, to grow our economy and diversify our markets, while we continue to protect the environment and ensure our commitments to Indigenous reconciliation are respected.
• We will do this in collaboration with willing provincial partners to ensure a timely and efficient regulatory process that respects the jurisdiction of each level of government and achieves the objective of one project, one review.

Getting Major Projects Built Efficiently
• The Government has committed to taking action to build Canada as an energy superpower and has prioritized building one Canadian economy by removing barriers to interprovincial trade and identifying and expediting nation-building projects that will connect and transform the country.
• This includes establishing a “one window” approval process through a Major Federal Project Office; shifting the focus of project reviews from “why” to “how” while upholding rigour when it comes to environmental protection and Indigenous consultation and participation; rendering final project decisions on a maximum two-year timeframe; and signing, within six months, cooperation agreements with willing Premiers and Indigenous governing bodies to recognize provincial, territorial, and Indigenous-led assessments.
• Work is underway to implement efficiency improvements throughout all phases of the impact assessment process. These include:
o Leveraging federal and provincial data and information to require less from proponents and leveraging provincial assessments and oversight to manage federal effects.

o Gathering permit requirements during assessments where proponents are willing to submit earlier project details. This will require coordination between federal departments and more risk tolerance all around.

o Standardizing mitigation measures on routine issues and focusing scope of federal reviews on unique issues in our jurisdiction that will influence decisions.

o Incorporating the use of AI throughout (e.g., to develop these standard measures, synthesize public comments, and shorten reports).

o Undertaking more strategic and regional assessments to further reduce what needs to be studied at the project level. This has been used successfully in the past to exempt offshore oil and gas exploration from assessments and could be expanded to offshore wind.

o Proactively supporting proponents and Indigenous groups in addressing key issues rather than waiting for proposed solutions.

• This builds on previous work related to enhancing regulatory efficiency for major projects, including by the previous Ministerial Working Group on Regulatory Efficiency for Clean Growth Projects and actions from previous Budgets, such as providing permitting coordination services during the impact assessment to provide clarity on permitting requirements earlier in the process.
Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) Decision and Impact Assessment Act (IAA) Amendments
• In October 2023, the SCC issued a decision that the IAA was partially unconstitutional and must focus on areas of federal jurisdiction. The decision underscores the need for federal and provincial governments to work together on impact assessment in the spirit of cooperative federalism.
• The SCC majority confirmed that there is “no doubt” Parliament can enact impact assessment legislation to “minimize the risks that some major projects pose to the environment.” It also confirmed that the overall structure of the IAA and process steps (e.g., early planning and transparent decision-making) and designating projects via the Physical Activities Regulations (Project List) remain sound.
• The Government of Canada tabled meaningful and targeted amendments to the IAA to respond to the decision, ensure the IAA is constitutionally sound, and restore regulatory certainty. Those amendments received Royal Assent and came into force on June 20, 2024.
• On October 3, 2024, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith sent a letter, including proposed amendments to the IAA to then Prime Minister Trudeau requesting that these amendments be brought forward within four weeks to avoid another reference question to the Court of Appeal of Alberta. On November 20, 2024, Alberta’s Lieutenant Governor referred a new reference question on the constitutionality of the amended Impact Assessment Act and the Project List to the Court of Appeal of Alberta.
Federal-Provincial Cooperation
• The Government of Canada strives for efficient assessments by working with provinces and territories to provide transparency and predictability for investors, proponents, Indigenous peoples and the public, and reduce duplication and the burden for those who participate in impact assessments.
• Where there is a provincial assessment on major projects primarily regulated under provincial jurisdiction, the federal government will recognize these processes to meet requirements of the IAA, to the extent possible. Where a provincial assessment does not cover all federal requirements, IAAC works closely with willing provinces to integrate these requirements into the provincial process to achieve a single assessment. Where federal matters are not incorporated, the federal government will work in a collaborative manner to advance a parallel assessment process that is focused on these residual issues to avoid duplication and overlapping.
• IAAC continues to engage provinces to go further on streamlining and coordinating assessments and integrating and coordinating federal and provincial permitting requirements.

Non-applicable