8 May 2023 EA Modernization…

8 May 2023
EA Modernization Project Team
Environmental Assessment Modernization Branch
Ministry of the Environment, Conservation & Parks
135 St Clair Ave West, 4th Floor
Toronto, ONM4V 1P5

Sir/Madam,
I write concerning the move by Ontario to update processes and procedures related to Environmental Assessments, specifically ERO 019-4219 (Project List Amendments), ERO 019-6693 (Municipal Class EA), and ERO 019-6705 (Improving Timelines for Comprehensive EAs).
To begin, the Concerned Citizens Committee of Tyendinaga and Environs (CCCTE) have been involved with the current system and can comment on the proposed changes from lived experience.
That experience informs the CCCTE’s decision to fully endorse the submission of the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) prepared by Richard Lindgren and dated May 8, 2023.

CCCTE would like to add the following comments to those included in the CELA submission:

1. Once Terms of Reference have been approved for a project, an appropriate deadline should be established for the Environmental Assessment to be submitted for approval. Any proponent failing to submit a completed assessment within that time limit should have the project rejected. There are many reasons for such a policy but a key one is the fact that circumstances frequently change – often dramatically – over time and the assessment of environmental impacts based on the original status could completely miss evolving conditions. In any case, it is clearly not good policy for an EA to be “open-ended”.
2. The minister’s authority to revoke a previously approved Terms of Reference must be included in any new EAA. Again, there are many reasons a ToR might need to be revoked, (stale dated, changed environmental policies, new information regarding risks to human health or the environment, etc.) and it should be clear in the legislation that the minister has this authority.
3. Finally, when an EA has been completed and the project has been rejected, it must be clear that no proponent can simply re-apply for the same or similar project. This has in fact happened in the case of the Richmond landfill and the resources wasted by municipal governments, MECP, and citizen groups has been significant. This despite the fact that simple common sense would conclude this second proposal cannot be approved. As our legal counsel said, “No means No”.

Ian Munro
Chair
Concerned Citizens Committee of Tyendinaga and Environs
5 Carscallen Drive
Napanee, Ontario
K7R 3H6

(613) 354-1828