The second 2012 omnibus budget bill, Bill C-45: A second Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 29, 2012 and other measures was tabled in Canada's Parliament October 18, 2012.

Bill C-45 follows Bill C-38: An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 29, 2012 and other measures passed by the House of Commons in June 2012. Bill C-38 was a highly controversial omnibus budget bill that became a flashpoint for nation-wide protests and a target of international criticism for pushing through sweeping changes to 70 different pieces of legislation, including landmark environmental laws like the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and Fisheries Act.

Bill C-45, picks up where last spring's budget bill left off. The 457-page omnibus budget implementation bill amends 64 different Acts or regulations. Changes to environmental law, include:

• Canada's Navigable Waters Protection Act is renamed Navigation Protection Act with major pipeline and interprovincial power line projects becoming exempt from earlier requirements that meant proponents had to prove their project would not damage navigable waterways and their species. Only lakes or rivers listed on a schedule will now be protected by the new Navigation Protection Act. Of the 32,000 lakes in Canada, only 97 are still protected by this law.
• Canada's Fisheries Act is amended to redefine the term "Aboriginal fishery," one of three types of fisheries (along with commercial and recreational) for a particular waterway to be subject to fisheries protections; and changes are made to the Environmental Damages Fund, which collects fines for Fisheries Act violations.
• In addition to changing the definition of "Aboriginal fishery" in the Fisheries Act (above), there are changes to the Indian Act that allow First Nations communities to lease reserve lands based on a majority of votes from those at a meeting or in a referendum, instead of a majority vote from all eligible voters. The aboriginal affairs minister is given authority to call a band meeting or referendum for the purpose of considering surrender of the band's land. The minister could also accept or refuse a land designation after receiving a resolution from the band council versus after a referendum or meeting ballot.
• Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, completely overhauled by An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 29, 2012 passed in June 2012, is changed again including amending a "transitional provision" so the new rules apply to projects that started years ago, and still required an environmental assessment under the previous CEAA.

This is the fourth time since 2009 that omnibus budget bills have been used to make changes to Canada's laws, including environmental laws. In addition to the two 2012 Omnibus budget bills the 2010 omnibus budget bill amended the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act to give the Minister of Environment ability to scope environmental reviews to exempt projects from more thorough assessment and to transfer responsibility for certain assessments from the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, to weaker bodies such as the National Energy Board; and the 2009 omnibus budget slipped in non-budgetary changes to Canada's Navigable Waters Protection Act.