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What is environmental assessment?

In general, environmental assessment is a process to predict the environmental effects of proposed initiatives before they are carried out.

An environmental assessment:

• identifies possible environmental effects
• proposes measures to mitigate adverse effects
• predicts whether there will be significant adverse environmental effects, even after the mitigation is implemented

Other environmental studies are often confused with environmental assessment.

Environmental assessments are not …

Environmental site assessments that are used to identify the nature and extent of contaminants on a specific site.

Environmental audits that are used to evaluate the environmental management and regulatory compliance of a specific operation.

What is the purpose of environmental assessment?

There are two main purposes of environmental assessment:

• minimize or avoid adverse environmental effects before they occur
• incorporate environmental factors into decision making

When are environmental assessments undertaken?

Environmental assessment should be conducted as early as possible in the planning and proposal stages of a project for the analysis to be valuable to decision makers and to incorporate the mitigative measures into the proposed plans.

Timely and efficient environmental assessments result in more informed decision making that supports sustainable development.

What are the benefits of environmental assessment?

By considering environmental effects and mitigation early in the project planning cycle, environmental assessment can have many benefits, such as:

• an opportunity for public participation
• increased protection of human health
• the sustainable use of natural resources
• reduced project costs and delays
• minimized risks of environmental disasters
• increased government accountability

What are the main steps?

Many important steps help to identify possible environmental effects and mitigative measures.

Figure 1 - Environmental assessment process

1. Determine if an environmental assessment is required - A federal authority determines whether it has a responsibility to ensure that an environmental assessment is conducted.

2. Identify who’s involved - The responsible party, called a responsible authority:

• notifies other federal parties to determine whether they may have responsibilities to ensure the conduct of an environmental assessment
• contributes expert information

3. Plan the environmental assessment - The responsible authority(ies) determine how the environmental assessment will be conducted. For example, they identify the:

• scope of the proposed project
• scope of the factors that must be considered in the environmental assessment
• time lines

4. Conduct the analysis and prepare the environmental assessment report - One or more qualified environmental assessment practitioners identify the potential environmental effects and measures to mitigate those effects. The findings are presented in a written report.

5. Review environmental assessment report - The responsible authority(ies) reviews the report for adequacy and accuracy, and may have others review the report as well.

6. Make environmental assessment decision - Based on the findings of the report, the responsible authority(ies) decides whether adverse environmental effects are likely to be significant. This decision is taken into account when determining whether the proposed project should proceed.

7. Implement mitigation and follow-up program, as appropriate - If the proposal is to be carried out, the mitigation measures identified in the report are incorporated into the design plans and implemented with the project. Where required or appropriate, a follow-up program is also designed and implemented to verify that the environmental assessment was accurate and the mitigative measures were effective.

How can the public get involved?

Public participation is an important element of an environmental assessment process. It strengthens the quality and credibility of environmental assessments. The public is an important source of local and traditional knowledge about a proposed project's physical site and likely environmental effects.

Through public participation activities, project proponents can obtain information, better understand and respond to public concerns, and inform people about decisions. Learn about opportunities under Public Participation.

In what cases might federal and provincial/territorial governments work together to conduct environmental assessments?

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act requires that the federal environmental assessment process be applied when a federal authority is involved in a project. In some cases, both federal and provincial or territorial processes apply.

Given the potential for overlapping environmental assessments, the Act allows the Minister of the Environment to enter into agreements with provincial and territorial governments relating to the environmental assessments of projects where both governments have an interest.

These agreements provide guidelines for the roles and responsibilities of each government in the assessment of such projects.