The new Canadian environmental assessment act: A comparison with the environmental assessment review process

The Environmental Assessment Review Process (EARP) Guidelines Order was created to provide the federal government with an environmental impact assessment process that could ensure environmental implications of projects for which the federal government had a decision-making responsibility were considered early in the planning process. Due to several ambiguities in the Guidelines Order, reform was necessary and inevitable. The result of this reform is the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, proclaimed in January 1995. This article highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the new act. It also examines why practitioners have criticized the federal government for not seizing the reform opportunity to take a strong jurisdictional stand on environmental protection.