| Ottawa Sued for Loosening Environmental Rules | 11 May 09 |
 Canada's federal government issued regulations that would exempt about 2,000 federally funded infrastructure projects from having to pass environmental assessments, all in an effort to seek faster economic benefits, from the current economic stimulus package.Ecojustice filed a lawsuit on behalf of Sierra Club of Canada claiming the federal Cabinet does not have authority to issues regulations under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA). The lawsuit asks the Federal Court to declare the two recent regulations illegal, they are: The Exclusion List Regulations would exempt projects such as highways, bridges, garbage dumps, sewer systems, funded under the Building Plan Canada, from legally required federal assessments, until March 2011. The Infrastructure Projects Environmental Adaptation Regulations would unlawfully give powers to the Minister of Environment to exempt other projects from a federal EA funded under the Building Canada Fund. "It is reckless, irresponsible and represents an extremely serious attack on Canada's environmental assessment laws. US, China or India have not gotten rid of environmental assessment oversight in their economic stimulus plans," said Ecojustice lawyer Justin Duncan. View April 20, 2009 Sierra Club Canada articleView March 19, 2009 Canadian Environmental Assessment Act - Regulation Amendments (PDF) View April 15, 2009 Sierra Club of Canada's Notice of Application (PDF) View April 28, 2009 video of Sierra Club Canada Executive Director at Senate Committee View April 20, 2009 CBC article View April 23, 2009 Canadian Press article View April 20, 2009 Globe and Mail article Sources: Sierra Club, Canada Gazette, CBC |
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