/u/FransFriends asks:
Minister McKenna, thank you for doing this AMA!
The Prime Minister’s mandate letters to ministers excited and inspired many people whose work is closely tied to their content and direction. My question specifically pertains to the review of the environmental assessment process – more below for those unfamiliar!
Many environmental assessment practitioners under your jurisdiction were heartened by the prospect of this review, as they have wanted for years to be able to do a better job. How will you empower public servants working in this field to actually make environmental assessment the awesome and useful process we hope it can be? There are significant barriers to this happening.
With some people in positions of power still beholden to conservative ideologies the expertise, experience, and passion of on-the-ground environmental assessment practitioners within the public service risks being manipulated, diluted, or drown out as information and ideas make their way up to you. Public comments coming in through this same mechanism risk being scrubbed in the same way. Further, the budgets of some programs doing environmental assessment and related Indigenous consultation have been cut this year. This runs counter to the direction it seems departments have been given.
As a coworker so aptly noted with regards to what “meaningful” means in government – “You can’t just call a pig a feathery bird and have it be so.” How will you meaningfully empower public servants who are well positioned to share their ideas and engage with the public, and in doing so help you achieve the goals set out for the review of the environmental assessment process?
Info for those less nerdy about EA! Letter to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada: http://pm.gc.ca/eng/minister-environment-and-climate-change-mandate-letter
Direction for the review of the environmental assessment process: “immediately review Canada’s environmental assessment processes to regain public trust and help get resources to market and introduce new, fair processes that will: restore robust oversight and thorough environmental assessments of areas under federal jurisdiction, while also working with provinces and territories to avoid duplication; ensure that decisions are based on science, facts, and evidence, and serve the public’s interest; provide ways for Canadians to express their views and opportunities for experts to meaningfully participate; and require project advocates to choose the best technologies available to reduce environmental impacts.”