Immediate Short-Term Fixes …

Immediate Short-Term Fixes ERO number 013-5102

The Municipal Engineers Association (MEA) strongly supports exempting low-risk projects (MECA Schedule A and A+ projects) from the EA Act and encourages MECP to proceed with the amendments to the EA Act proposed in Bill 108. MEA also asks for MECP’s continued support and cooperation as we prepare an amendment to the project descriptions in all of the Schedules in Appendix 1 of the MCEA manual that will simplify the descriptions and re-classify projects when appropriate.

MEA also strongly supports clearly defining which matters “bump-ups” can be requested on and creating a regulation that would prescribe deadlines on when the Minister must make decisions on requests. MEA suggests that the regulation require the Minister to make a decision on a PIIOR within 60 days from receipt of the request. Also, MEA recommends that the regulations prescribe that the issues which can be considered in a PIIOR be restricted to issues included in their Table B that is used for their current PIIOR process, namely;

Consultation/Class EA Process
Source Water Protection
Climate Change/Cumulative Effects
Species at Risk
Archaeological/Heritage Assessment