Deal speeding up environmental reviews attracts criticism from Mi’kmaq rights and conservation groups [video]

New Brunswick has signed a deal with the federal government meant to speed up the development of major projects, but critics say the new approach threatens to water down environmental assessments while sidelining First Nations.

Under the agreement announced Wednesday by Premier Susan Holt and federal Cabinet Minister Dominic LeBlanc, projects that normally require provincial and federal environmental assessments will instead “when possible” go through an accelerated process.

Government officials insist that the “one project, one review” approach will improve efficiency without sacrificing environmental protections or the constitutional duty to consult with and accommodate First Nations.

But the deal has provoked criticism from Mi’gmawe’l Tplu’taqnn Inc., which represents eight Mi’kmaq communities in New Brunswick on matters of Indigenous rights, and from the Conservation Council of New Brunswick.

“It is actually quite insulting to be left on the sidelines while the Crown negotiates a new approach to impact assessment amongst themselves.”— MTI

The text itself contains a number of references to Indigenous peoples and the duty to consult, but MTI says the agreement doesn’t appear to address major concerns outlined in a three-page letter that the group sent to federal authorities in October.

That letter explains that MTI’s leadership adopted an Indigenous-led process in 2020 designed to assess the impacts of a given project on their rights and to determine whether or not to consent.

The government of then-premier Blaine Higgs “explicitly rejected” that process, “and while the Holt government has expressed interest in discussing alignment of our respective processes, to date, those discussions have yet to take place,” the letter states.

The new bilateral agreement sends the wrong message to industry because it “ignores the existence” of the Mi’gmaq Rights Impact Assessment Framework, the letter continues.

“It is actually quite insulting to be left on the sidelines while the Crown negotiates a new approach to impact assessment amongst themselves,” it states.

Under the terms of the agreement, Canada will rely on New Brunswick’s processes to assess “adverse effects within federal jurisdiction of a proposed project, to the greatest extent possible,” if the project is “primarily a provincial undertaking.”

First Nations ‘systematically excluded’ 

Conversely, if a project is “primarily a federal undertaking,” Canada will integrate the provincial requirements into the federal assessment, “if applicable and desired by New Brunswick.”

MTI warned that this arrangement is premised on the notion — as stated in the text of the agreement — that both levels of government already have “robust” assessment processes “informed by Indigenous engagement and consultation.”

However, MTI says that’s not the case in New Brunswick, where “First Nations have been systematically excluded from the technical review committees appointed under the EIA processes.”

On Wednesday, the Premier commented on the lack of MTI involvement in response to a question from a journalist. “I’m sure you can appreciate we have been rebuilding relationships with First Nations in this province,” Holt said, in part.

“We share their desire to have them more involved, and they now have a provincial government that’s keen to partner with them and leverage their expertise on the technical review side of our environmental impact assessments.”

Full news conference: 

LeBlanc, whose multiple Cabinet portfolios include Canada-U.S. trade and intergovernmental affairs, noted that some funding will be available to allow MTI and other Indigenous groups to participate in technical processes.

But in its letter, MTI said that it “cannot condone or consent” to an approach “premised on the idea that the Crown should ultimately take the lead on decisions involving environmental and other impacts in our territory, and which treats First Nations as an afterthought.”

And while a line in the agreement acknowledges Canada’s obligations under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, it doesn’t mention New Brunswick, an omission that “has not gone unnoticed,” said Jennifer Coleman, a spokesperson for MTI.

Nor was there any mention of UNDRIP in a provincial minerals strategy framework released in October.

Weaker requirements in N.B.

Beverly Gingras, executive director of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, said the terms of the agreement are vague. For example, it’s unclear when the provincial or federal government will take the lead on a given project. “The details of how this actually will work aren’t there,” she said.

Federal environmental assessments are wider in scope, she said, but the new deal appears to allow for Ottawa to pass those off to the province, which has relatively weak requirements.

“It does feel in a way that the federal government is trying to get away from having to do those full federal impact assessments,” but it’s hard to know because the language of the agreement itself is “kind of wishy-washy,” she said.

The agreement is part of efforts to speed up economic development and attract capital investment in response to the trade war launched by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Gingras acknowledged that the approvals process tends to be long, but she said that’s often because government departments charged with oversight lack resources and because industrial proponents are unprepared to provide the required information.

Disaster capitalism

Some critics have argued that efforts to accelerate development in response to the trade war is an example of disaster capitalism, the practice of taking financial advantage of man-made or natural disasters to advance a corporate agenda.

Asked to comment, Holt said the point of the agreement was to save tax dollars by eliminating redundancy.

“We’ve coordinated our timelines and our teams so that we have one project going through one clear and robust review,” she said, in part.

LeBlanc said that this year’s federal election gave Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government a mandate to “get big projects done quickly” and to create jobs.

“If you’re working in one of those industries and one of those sectors today, to suddenly see hiring job fairs where hundreds of people will be hired in good-paying, long-term jobs, is, I think, a very responsible thing for governments to look at,” he said.

Gingras said that people shouldn’t have to sacrifice clean air and water for jobs. “It does feel like both provincial and the federal governments and industry are using tariffs to push their agendas,” she said.

David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, via the Local Journalism Initiative.