Environmental Assessment Office
Federal/Provincial Relations
EAO is committed to working with the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) to minimize duplication and to harmonize efforts wherever possible. Significant progress has recently been made on a number of initiatives:
Equivalency Agreements
Under section 27 of the EA Act, BC may accept an EA undertaken by another jurisdiction as "equivalent" to BC's, thereby avoiding completely the need to conduct duplicate EAs. The EAO has recently entered into two such agreements with the federal government. They are:
1) Fairview Terminal Expansion Project - Prince Rupert; and
Delegation Agreements
The purpose of the agreements is to delegate the screening of the proposed projects and the screening report to EAO pursuant to subsection 17(1) of the Act. The agreement sets out the roles and responsibilities of the parties with respect to delegation agreement of the federal environmental assessment process. EAO has entered into a delegation agreements with:
Implementation Agreement
Under the Canada-BC Environmental Assessment Cooperation Agreement, EAO and CEAA have entered into a detailed implementation agreement dealing with a range of matters, including joint work planning, joint staff training and piloting the delegation of federal EA functions to the EAO.
Joint Staff Training
EAO and CEAA have developed a joint training program, to ensure new staff understand both EA systems, and how they can best be harmonized. For a copy of the training PowerPoint presentation please click here.
CEAA and EAO are hoping to expand this training into a workshop that can be delivered to proponents, consultants, and other persons who have direct involvement in the EA process. More information will be provided as that becomes available.
Joint Work Planning
The Environmental Assessment Office and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency have developed a joint project work planning tool, which can be used simultaneously by staff from both organizations for projects that undergo a joint environmental assessment.
The joint project work plan tool tracks and reports on achievements of important environmental assessment milestones, such as public comment periods, issuance of orders, approvals of application terms of reference, and referral of assessment reports to ministers.
A joint project work plan will be developed for every project that undergoes a joint environmental assessment. It will be developed at the beginning of the process and set out detailed, specific timeframes for each aspect of an EA. The project work plan will be useful for working groups as well as proponents in scheduling activities and meeting deadlines throughout the entire review process.
In addition to these initiatives, EAO and the Agency will continue to pursue innovative approaches to enhance future collaboration.
