"If you care about clean air, fresh water and wild salmon you should be very, very concerned," said Gwen Barlee, Wilderness Committee policy director.

"It's death by a thousand cuts. All these little projects are destroying habitat and Ottawa is ignoring that," said Otto Langer, retired head of habitat assessment and planning for the federal fisheries department in B.C.

The cancelled reviews are a direct result of the Government of Canada's omnibus budget bill, which passed May 2012, modifying or replacing 69 pieces of legislation. This included completely replacing the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.

"Sadly in Canada right now when the oil industry says jump, the government asks how high," said Hannah McKinnon, campaign director of Climate Action Network Canada, a coalition of environmental, labour union and faith-based groups.

The number of environmental reviews cancelled in each Canadian province are as follows: Alberta (348), British Columbia (492), Manitoba (87), New Brunswick (141), Newfoundland and Labrador (152), Northwest Territories (6), Nova Scotia (151), Nunavut (1), Ontario (561), PEI (24), Quebec (295), Saskatchewan (638), Yukon (1).