On March 23, 2017, the National Assembly adopted Bill 102, a major reform of the Environment Quality Act which was to come into force a year later, on March 23, 2018, five years ago. What was done. With the exception of a single provision, article 118.5 relating to the creation of the public register of access to environmental information which, according to the adopted law, must come into force “on a date to be fixed by decree of the government “.
However, six years after the adoption of this law and eight years after the announcement by the Couillard government to create such a public registry in the white paper that preceded the tabling of Bill 102, there is still no government decree in this sense.
The creation of the public environmental register was nevertheless presented by the government, at the time, as the centerpiece that should correct the main shortcomings observed in terms of access to environmental information and one of the great advances of this bill for the Quebec population.
For six years now, the ministry responsible for the environment claims to be “working” on the implementation of the public register for all those seeking information on a possible entry into force. It seems that it’s not just the SAAQ that’s having difficulty with the technological tools that are supposed to “make life easier” for citizens! I am not at all a conspirator, but I cannot believe that “technical difficulties” can justify such delays. Especially since since 2018, all documents sent to the ministry by applicants for authorization must be in digital form.
For my part, this delay can only be explained by a lack of political will due to intensive lobbying by companies and business groups openly opposed to the register as adopted by the National Assembly in 2017.
It should be remembered that section 118.5, which is due to come into force, one day perhaps, specifically concerns the various applications for environmental authorizations submitted to the Minister, generally by companies, as well as the authorizations issued.
A desire for transparency
It provides, among other things, that “all the information, documents, studies and analyzes referred to in section 27 concerning the documents and information that must be contained in a ministerial authorization, as well as the other information, documents or studies forming an integral part thereof by virtue of another provision of the Environment Quality Act are public,” as well as made quickly and easily accessible to the public through the new registry.
This addition was intended to correct one of the main shortcomings of the previous law, which meant that the authorization conditions issued by the minister generally remained secret. Consequently, the Quebec population could not know the environmental authorization conditions of many projects and the established right of every citizen to take an environmental injunction to “enforce the authorization conditions” of a project became completely illusory.
This situation was the subject of numerous criticisms and Bill 102, tabled in June 2016, made the public disclosure of all authorization conditions a major issue and a significant step forward. Initially, the bill did not provide for any exception to this disclosure obligation, even for any type of document submitted by authorization applicants.
But the employers’ associations then raised their voices and they were heard.
In December 2016, during work in parliamentary committee on the bill, an unfortunate amendment was adopted, specifying that applicants for environmental authorization would benefit from the restrictions set out in Articles 23 and 24 of the Law on access to documents held by public bodies, restrictions giving them a total right of veto on the disclosure of these documents by the public register to be created. This was a serious setback, even compared to the previous situation!
A previous
Fortunately, thanks to the vigilance of the Center québécois du droit de l’environnement, a mobilization campaign led Minister David Heurtel to propose a compromise solution and withdraw sections 23 and 24 of the Law on access to documents held by public bodies as restrictions that may affect the public registry. To the chagrin of business groups who thought they had succeeded!
However, the fact that the law adopted in 2017 provides that the 118.5 register will only come into force on a date provided for by the adoption of a government decree offers business combinations an “emergency exit” and a wonderful opportunity to lobby the department in order to delay this implementation as much as possible, if not prevent it. In this respect, there is an important precedent, since in 1978, when the initial adoption of the Environment Quality Actan article specifically provided for the creation of an assistance fund to promote citizen participation during BAPE hearings.
But this article was also to come into force later, “on a date to be defined by the adoption of a government decree”. You can guess the rest, such a decree was never adopted and the article in question was finally repealed in 2017! The population still has no financial assistance to participate in the public hearings of the BAPE, 45 years after the adoption of a law providing for it!
Will it be the same for the creation of a public register promoting environmental information to this same population? I dare to hope not, but the question arises… It is up to the CAQ government to answer it. Quickly !