In 2010, after proroguing Parliament December 30, 2009, the Government has again introduced a budget bill that reduces legal and regulatory provisions under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act to protect Canada's natural environment.

In a May 10, 2010 letter to the Canadian Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, sixteen conservation and community organizations implore members of the Committee "...to object to these regressive changes that threaten Canada's environment."

1. exempting a host of major projects from environmental assessments;
2. granting Minister of Environment discretionary power to break large projects into smaller pieces and avoid environmental assessment (over rules January 2010 recent Supreme Court decision of MiningWatch Canada v. Canada);
3. public environmental assessments for pipelines and nuclear power projects to National Energy Board and Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, despite no previous experience or mandate to conduct environmental reviews.

"By burying these significant changes deep within a towering, 900-page budget bill, the government has deliberately sought to hide these changes from public scrutiny, discussion or debate," says Josh Paterson, staff lawyer at West Coast Environmental Law in Vancouver. "That's why we're asking MPs on the Finance Committee to show environmental leadership by cutting these changes out of the Budget."