Why It’s Time to Reform Environmental Assessment in British Columbia

WHY IT’S TIME TO REFORM ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT IN BRITISH COLUMBIA JANUARY 2018 GARTH LENZ, ILCP 2. WHY IT’S TIME TO REFORM ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT IN BRITISH COLUMBIA TIME TO OVERHAUL ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT AND PLANNING IN BC In the summer of 2017, the new provincial government promised to reform environmental assessment and planning in British Columbia. [...] This commitment puts BC at the doorstep of a major opportunity to transform the way we assess and plan for development activities in the province, in order to better align provincial decisions with the needs of ecosystems, the vision of BC communities, and the exercise of jurisdiction by Indigenous nations. [...] The Confidence and Supply Agreement between the BC New Democrat government and the BC Green caucus acknowledges that British Columbians do not have faith in the province’s environmental assessment process and, as a condition of support for the minority government, commits to revitalizing and modernizing environmental assessment in BC.1 In keeping with this obligation, the mandate letter of Ministe [...] In both cases, the provincial government approved the project anyway, accepting the significant adverse impacts with little or no “justification” provided for the decision.18 In the case of Prosperity Mine (and the slightly revised New Prosperity Mine proposal), the seeming arbitrariness of BC’s approval is highlighted by the federal government’s rejection of the same project.19 WHY IT’S TIME TO R [...] In environmental assessments, the proponent defines the scope of the project, conducts the environmental assessment, and participates in the government review of that assessment.