(Ottawa) Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said Thursday that the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada will limit some of its studies while Ottawa amends the law to respond to the recent notice from the Supreme Court of Canada.
The Impact Assessment Act, passed four years ago, establishes a new environmental review process for major projects.
In its response to a referral, the country’s highest court ruled earlier this month that this law encroached on provincial jurisdiction.
The Supreme Court validated sections of the law that deal with projects that Ottawa finances on federal lands or outside the country. But the court ruled that the measures which allow the federal minister to submit a provincial project to Ottawa’s impact study are unconstitutional.
Minister Guilbeault says that while waiting to refine the wording of the law to take into account the opinion of the Supreme Court, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada will re-examine all of its current assessments to determine whether they fall within actually within federal jurisdiction.
The minister also promises that he will not, for the moment, designate other projects for federal examination.
The federal agency is currently examining around fifty projects, almost half of which are mines.