Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012

• ARLINGTON, Va., Oct. 25, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- NumbersUSA will present the findings from its Idaho sprawl study and survey of likely voters in Idaho this Sunday.
• The Kootenai/Shoshone Farm Bureau will host this event on Idaho Sprawl.
• LOCATION: The Country Barn in Cataldo, Idaho
  PRESENTATION: Leon Kolankiewicz , the Idaho sprawl study's lead author, will give the presentation.
• NumbersUSA Outreach Liaison and Idaho resident Rob Harding will attend the event and participate in a Q&A session.

• Specifically, the Impact Assessment Act responded to the need for an open, transparent and predictable process that supports development while protecting the environment and upholding the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
• "The Government of Canada developed the Impact Assessment Act to create a better set of rules that respect the environment, Indigenous rights and ensure projects get assessed in a timely way.
• The Impact Assessment Act came into force in August 2019, repealing and replacing the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012 (CEAA 2012).
• To respect Canada's constitutional setting, under the Impact Assessment Act, each province and territory retains authority for making separate decisions based on their respective areas of jurisdiction.

• This submission marks the first comprehensive environmental study in North America for a commercial-scale green hydrogen project.
• Sean Leet, Managing Director and CEO of World Energy GH2, says this EIS is a key milestone for Project Nujio'qonik.
• John Risley, Chairman of World Energy GH2, says this is an important milestone in the development of Project Nujio'qonik and in the launch of a new industry.
• The world desperately needs clean, green energy, and we're working to make that a reality here in Atlantic Canada."

• On the heels of the latest United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report declaring a “rapidly closing window of opportunity” to secure a liveable future, the Supreme Court of Canada recently heard a case that could decide the future of Canadian climate policy.
• The federal government, on March 21 and 22, asked the Supreme Court of Canada to overturn the Alberta Court of Appeal’s opinion.

The politics of climate change

• The express purposes of the law include fostering sustainability, mitigating climate change and incorporating Indigenous knowledge when assessing the impacts of major economic projects across Canada.
• The Alberta court acknowledged the existential threat of climate change.
• But it insisted the Impact Assessment Act is an equally important “existential threat” to the federal-provincial division of powers in Canada.

The hearing before the Supreme Court

• The crux of the case before the Supreme Court now is thus a federal-provincial dispute over which level of government will determine Canada’s response to climate change.
• Nevertheless, the majority of the Supreme Court’s panel of seven judges suggested a number of ways to interpret the law more narrowly.
• For example, the court suggested a requirement that the federal government’s power under the law be proportional to the project’s impacts on defined areas of federal jurisdiction.

It’s all about politics

• The decision will boil down to politics.
• The Supreme Court will be loath to give either the federal government or Alberta a complete victory.
• Indeed, the court will remind Canadians that both levels of government are accountable for climate change, biodiversity conservation and sustainability.
• To do so, they must actively participate in climate politics, collectively organize and demand governments to lead the way towards ecological sustainability.