Notice of Amendment: Public Work (Now Government Property) Class Environmental Assessment

Ontario is taking action to modernize its almost 50-year-old environmental assessment process to support building safer and stronger communities.

We are developing sensible, practical changes that would ensure strong environmental oversight while reducing delays on projects that matter most to Ontario communities.

Following consultation with Indigenous communities, proponents, stakeholders and government agencies, we are making changes to the Class Environmental Assessment process for projects in respect of government property to better align assessment requirements with potential environmental impact.

The amendments to the existing Class EA described in this note are focused on exempting low-risk projects from the Act, updating the screening process to allow proponents to screen projects to determine if they are low-impact, replacing the Category Listing Matrix with a new categorization process and other changes to increase the efficiency of the Class EA. The Ministry of Infrastructure (MOI) also proposed to change the name to the Government Property Class EA.

These changes will improve the process for routine projects in respect of government property, while maintaining strong environmental oversight and protection.

Changes were also made to incorporate the amendments that were made to the Environmental Assessment Act in 2019 and 2020, to correct errors, and update references and names. The ministry also modified, some of amendments that were originally proposed by the Ministry of Infrastructure in response to concerns from the public, municipalities, agencies, and Indigenous communities.

Amendments to the Public Work (now Government Property) Class EA

The amendments to the Class EA include:

• changing the name of the Class EA from public work to government property
• exempting low-risk projects to allow for a better fit of EA effort to potential environmental risks, based on implementation experience and/or changes to address public interest by allowing for more efficient implementation of projects for communities (e.g. operation and maintenance, emergencies, administrative undertakings with no physical works, small structures, etc.)
• clarifying the roles of the applicant and proponents
• replacing the Category Listing Matrix and changing the screening process to allow proponents to screen (exempt) projects subject to the Class EA process or to elevate a project to a Category C project based on a series of screening questions
• including provisions for the proponent to consider and address any potential impacts related to source water protection, as well as to assess climate change impacts and consider cumulative effects, in Category B and C projects
• general amendments to simplify the assessment process, provide information on the duty to consult and consultation with Indigenous communities, improve notification and identification of stakeholders, and update the Class EA, where appropriate, to align with other Class EAs and consequential amendments

This notice is being published to bring the amendments into effect.

Please refer to the 2023 Government Property Class Environmental Assessment and the Notice of Amendments in the ‘Related files’ section below to review:

• the approved amendments
• the reasons for making the amendments

We encourage all proponents to review the amended listing of projects, Project Groups and the transition provisions to assess how the amendments may affect their projects.

Note: the amended Class EA does not include any changes related to the Moving to a project list approach under the Environmental Assessment Act. At the time of this decision to amend the Class EA, the review of input on that proposal remains underway.

How we consulted on amendments to the Public Work (now Government Property) Class EA

In 2019, we invited proponents to review their class environmental assessments and propose changes to better align assessment requirements with environmental risk to ensure that projects important to communities are implemented in a timely manner. Following consultation with Indigenous communities, municipalities, stakeholders and government agencies, changes were made to improve the environmental assessment program, as it applies to projects in respect of government property.

We consulted with the public and Indigenous communities on the Environmental assessment modernization: amendment proposals for Class Environmental Assessments, , including the proposed Public Work Class EA amendments, from July 8 2020, to August 22, 2020.

Following this consultation, we:

• conducted a detailed technical review of the specific amendments in consultation with technical staff across the ministry
• considered the comments submitted on the proposal by Indigenous communities, stakeholders and government agencies