Environmental impact assessment : a regional or a national decision making procedure?
Date
1986
Authors
Gélinas, Christiane
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Abstract
Today the Canadian administrations and the public are well aware of the impacts of the exploitation of natural resources on the environment. It was only recently, in the early 197Os, that natural resource depletion, scarcity, and environmental pollution came to be regarded as priorities. Who is responsible? In Canada jurisdictional responsibility over natural resources and the environment has suffered from the ambiguity of the terms of the Constitution (1867-1982) dividing the power between a central and ten provincial administrations. Within this Canadian political culture, although they follow their particular paradigm, the regions have all adopted a version of environmental management policy and decision making procedure that assess the possible environmental consequences of natural resource development on the environment.
Considered a source of public revenue, the development of the Canadian natural resource has been analyzed for many years in terms of economic growth and benefit and cost for a region, a province or the country. With the implementation of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) and its subsequent stages, natural resource development has taken a new tangent into environmental management. To attain its full effectiveness the EIA has to be introduced as early as possible into the decisional process attached to an environmental management policy. Its aims are then to decentralize the making of a decision at an early stage and to provide environmental guidance for developmental decisions at the frontier region as well as in developed areas.
Dissatisfaction over participatory activities in the EIA exercise has presented an opportunity to examine how the involved actors connect and communicate together in an activation mode. Furthermore, the review of the EIA practiced in Canada has given the chance again to underline the various shortcomings of its application in a regional country. One region in particular, represented by the province of Quebec, has distanced itself from the rest of Canada in its quest of modernization. It is perceived not only in its socio-political evolution but also in the protection of its environment, symbolized in the EIA.
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UN SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production