Re: Ontario’s Ring of Fire development plan has major flaws
in response to
by
HIGH-GRADE NI-CU-PT-PD-ZN-CR-AU-V-TI DISCOVERIES IN THE "RING OF FIRE"
NI 43-101 Update (September 2012): 11.1 Mt @ 1.68% Ni, 0.87% Cu, 0.89 gpt Pt and 3.09 gpt Pd and 0.18 gpt Au (Proven & Probable Reserves) / 8.9 Mt @ 1.10% Ni, 1.14% Cu, 1.16 gpt Pt and 3.49 gpt Pd and 0.30 gpt Au (Inferred Resource)
Message: Ontario’s Ring of Fire development plan has major flaws
"We’ve seen no effort to strategically assess what is at stake ecologically before introducing mines, roads and transmission lines into one of the world’s last intact wild areas...."
Cheryl Chetkiewicz, Justina Ray
Cheryl Chetkiewicz, PhD
Cheryl Chetkiewicz, PhD, is an Associate Conservation Scientist with Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Canada with expertise in wildlife research, conservation, environmental planning, and monitoring. She focuses on regional-scale conservation issues in Ontario’s Far North, specifically field-based and applied wildlife research and monitoring, cumulative effects assessment, regional strategic environmental assessment, and protected area planning. Prior to her work with WCS Canada in Ontario, Cheryl worked for the Gwich’in Renewable Resource Board as a biologist conducting research based on direction from the co-management board and was a program officer for global carnivore conservation at WCS Global based in New York.
With respect to environmental assessment, Cheryl has been engaged with a number of federal and provincial environmental assessments in northern Ontario, particularly in the Ring of Fire. She has worked to promote the need for regional and strategic environmental assessment in Ontario’s Far North with both government and First Nations and together with Dr. Anastasia Lintner, developed a report providing the rationale for doing so. She also leads a research effort to examine the cumulative effects of future lands use and climate change scenarios on wildlife in the region to support more effective cumulative environmental assessment and decision-making.
Cheryl has been a member of the OAIA Planning Committee since 2015 and has focused on bringing practitioners and experts together to share their experience around strategic and regional environmental assessments across Canada at both the federal and provincial level. As a member-at-large, Cheryl plans to continue to support and encourage the interest in regional and strategic environmental assessment, cumulative effects assessment and the role of environmental assessment in generating better conservation outcomes.
Last Updated: December 2016
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Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012
What is the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012?
The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012(CEAA2012) and its regulations establish the legislative basis for the federal practice of environmental assessment in most regions of Canada.
The purpose of CEAA 2012 is to:
- Protect components of the environment that are within federal legislative authority from significant adverse environmental effects caused by a designated project;
- Ensure that designated projects are considered and carried out in a careful and precautionary manner in order to avoid significant adverse environmental effects when a federal authority is exercising a power or performing a duty or function required for the project to proceed;
- Promote cooperation and coordination between federal and provincial governments;
- Promote communication and cooperation with Aboriginal peoples;
- Ensure that opportunities are provided for meaningful public participation;
- Ensure that environmental assessments are completed in a timely manner;
- Ensure that proposed projects on federal lands or that are outside Canada and carried out or financially supported by a federal authority, are considered in a careful and precautionary manner in order to avoid significant adverse environmental effects;
- Encourage federal authorities to take actions in a manner that promotes sustainable development in order to achieve or maintain a healthy environment and a healthy economy; and
- Encourage further studies of the cumulative effects of physical activities in a region and the consideration of the study results in environmental assessments.
Regulations help put the CEAA 2012 procedures into effect.
Guidance material to further clarify the application of CEAA2012 can be found in Policy and Guidance.
When does the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012 apply?
CEAA2012 applies to projects described in the Regulations Designating Physical Activities and to projects designated by the Minister of the Environment.
When the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (the Agency) is the responsible authority for a designated project that is described in the Regulations Designating Physical Activities, upon acceptance of a project description, an analysis is undertaken by the Agency to decide if a federal environmental assessment is required. This step does not apply to designated projects regulated by the National Energy Board and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission for which conducting an environmental assessment is mandatory when such a project is designated.
A project may be designated by the Minister of the Environment if he or she is of the opinion that the carrying out of the project may cause adverse environmental effects, or that public concerns related to those effects warrant the designation. An environmental assessment under CEAA 2012 is required for each project designated by the Minister of the Environment.
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