Throughout many…

Throughout many jurisdictions within Ontario, those undertaking class environmental assessments for public agencies create, update, and/or maintain stakeholder lists to ensure that all stakeholders have been provided the opportunity to provide input into the process; often including indigenous peoples. This concept of managing countless lists, attempting to find the correct individual to be added to the list at the many impacted agencies, and/or attempting to ensure that all parties are consulted with is highly time-consuming and expensive.

It is my suggestion to this process is that a central repository of stakeholder contact information be kept by one governing body such as the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP). When a new project is submitted through the streamlined class environmental assessment process, distribution to the master stakeholder list can occur in a automated fashion based on preselected criteria captured in the project form. It should be the responsibility of the review agencies to provide the governing body with any updates within their own organization to ensure that they are kept informed of ongoing projects.