What Is a Regional Assessment?

A regional assessment is an environmental impact assessment process through which the potential environmental, social, and economic effects of numerous proposed activities are assessed on a broad, regional scale. Whereas project-specific impact assessments only assess the potential effects of individual proposed projects, a regional assessment is a tool for assessing large-scale effects of a number of activities within a given region. 

Regional assessments are created and conducted under section 92 of Canada’s Impact Assessment Act (“IAA”). Under the IAA, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change (the “Minister”) may establish a committee or authorize the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (the “Agency”) to conduct a regional assessment of the effects of existing or future physical activities. 

The Minister must establish Terms of Reference (“TOR”) to guide any regional assessment, and if the Minister creates a committee to conduct a regional assessment, the Minister must appoint the committee's members. Whether a committee or the Agency conducts a regional assessment, the body conducting the assessment must take into account any scientific information and Indigenous knowledge that is provided for the assessment. Additionally, the public must be provided with an opportunity for participation. 

When a regional assessment has been completed, the body that conducted the assessment must provide a report to the Minister. The IAA is silent on how a regional assessment report should or will be used.

What Was the Newfoundland and Labrador Regional Assessment?

The Newfoundland and Labrador Regional Assessment was Canada’s first regional assessment. It was conducted to assess the potental regional effects of proposed offshore exploratory oil and gas drilling projects in the study area, which totals 735,000 square kilometers off the eastern shore of Newfoundland and Labrador. In September 2018, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (now the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada) released a Draft Agreement for the Regional Assessment of Exploratory Oil and Gas Activities for the Offshore of Newfoundland and Labrador. A 30-day window for public commentary followed its release.

On April 15, 2019, the Agency published a Final Agreement for the Regional Assessment. The Agreement was designed to meet the requirements of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012 as well as those of Canada's Impact Assessment Act, which replaced CEAA 2012 in August 2019. 

Ultimately, the Regional Assessment resulted in a Report that was submitted to Canada's Minister of Environment and Climate Change, and which may provide a foundation for Ministerial decision-making about proposed projects in the region in the future.

Who Conducted the Newfoundland and Labrador Regional Assessment?

Canada's Minister of Environment and Climate Change, with input from Ministers of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, established a five-member Regional Assessment Committee and mandated it to conduct a Regional Assessment of the effects of existing and anticipated exploratory drilling in an offshore area east of Newfoundland and Labrador. 

The Committee was required to conduct the Regional Assessment in keeping with legislative requirements and the Terms of Reference created by the Minister. Those requirements included engaging with the public and Indigenous groups.

The Committee was assisted by a Task Team, which was headed by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (which later became the Impact Assessment Agency). The Task Team included members of the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board, Natural Resources Canada, and Newfoundland and Labrador's Department of Natural Resources. The Task Team was responsible for the Regional Assessment’s design, including its objectives, a work plan, process steps, knowledge and information requirements, resource needs, and measures for engagement. 

The Agreement for the Regional Assessment also called for the creation of a Technical Advisory Group (the “TAG”), which was meant to support the Task Team and Committee to gather relevant data and information, conduct technical analysis, and provide expertise for the Regional Assessment. Members of the TAG could be from within or outside of government, as long as they had knowledge or experience relevant to the Regional Assessment. 

How Did the Newfoundland and Labrador Regional Assessment Process Work?

The Regional Assessment Committee was required to hold, at minimum, face-to-face meetings in Newfoundland and to open a window for public commentary on its draft report. The Committee was required to complete its work by “Fall 2019”, which it interpreted as December 2019. The initial deadline was later extended to February 2020. 

A public registry housed on the website of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (now the Impact Assessment Agency) was maintained by the Task Team to allow for public access. The registry compiled information that was used to develop the Regional Assessment, including submissions, reports, and comments received by the Task Team or Committee from the public and Indigenous groups. The registry was also meant to include information produced by the Task Team or Committee.

The Committee conducted a number of meetings during the spring and summer of 2019. In September 2019, it hosted the first (and only) Technical Advisory Group ("TAG") meetings. A total of seven sessions with stakeholders were conducted between September 9, 2019 and September 17, 2019. Each session covered a general topic, and the topics included: 

• Commercial fisheries;
• Marine birds;
• Geographical Information System;
• Oil spills;
• Cumulative effects;
• Marine fish and fish habitat; and
• Climate change.

The Committee also conducted a number of separate TAG sessions with Indigenous communities.

Before each TAG session, a backgrounder document was provided to participants of each specific meeting providing brief points of information and posing general discussion questions. TAG sessions were facilitated and lasted approximately three hours each. Later in the autumn of 2019, stakeholders were invited to participate in a literature review.

In December 2019, participants of the Regional Assessment process were invited to workshops to discuss draft recommendations. Two workshops occurred in early December, and they were held in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and Halifax, Nova Scotia, respectively. A separate workshop was also held in Truro, Nova Scotia, for Indigenous participants.

The Committee released its Draft Report on January 23, 2020. A 30-day window for public commentary followed, and that public commentary period closed on February 21, 2020. The Committee sent its Final Report to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change on February 29, 2020.

What Was the Objective of the Regional Assessment?

The Regional Assessment Committee’s mandate was to conduct a regional assessment of offshore oil and gas exploratory drilling in the study area. Ultimately, the purpose of the Regional Assessment was to conduct a large-scale assessment of the potential effects of numerous new offshore oil and gas exploratory drilling projects that are being contemplated for the region and to provide information to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change that could inform environmental decision-making going forward. To that end, the Committee was required to submit a Final Report to the Minister and include advice on how best to use the results of the Regional Assessment to assist with Ministerial decision-making.

In carrying out its work, the Committee was guided by the Final Agreement that had been issued by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency in April 2019. That Agreement set out the factors that the Committee had to consider (listed in Appendix A) and the Committee’s terms of reference (listed in Appendix D). 

In general, the factors to be considered by the Committee generally reflected the factors that must be considered in a project-specific impact assessment, as described by section 22 of the Impact Assessment Act. They included:

• Changes to the environment, health, social or economic conditions;
• Mitigation measures;
• Impacts of exploratory drilling on Indigenous groups and adverse impacts on Indigenous rights under section 35 of Canada's Constitution Act, 1982;
• Purpose of and need for offshore exploratory drilling;
• Alternate means;
• Indigenous knowledge;
• Offshore exploratory drilling contribution to sustainability;
• Extent to which offshore exploratory drilling hinders or contributes to environmental obligations and climate change commitments; 
• Changes to offshore exploratory drilling caused by the environment;
• Requirements of follow-up programs;
• Public comments and comments from other jurisdictions during the Regional Assessment;
• Any assessments of offshore exploratory drilling effects conducted by an Indigenous governing body;
• Any study or plan conducted of a region within the study area, such as strategic environmental assessments;
• Intersection of sex and gender with other identify factors; and
• Other relevant matters.

How Will the Regional Assessment Be Used?

The Minister of Environment and Climate Change has proposed to use the Final Report of the Regonal Assessment Committee—which includes a number of recommendations by the Committee—to create regulations under subsection 112(1)(a.2) of Canada's Impact Assessment Act. If they are created as they have been proposed, the regulations will exempt exploratory oil and gas drilling projects within the Regional Assessment study area from requiring impact assessments under Canada's Impact Assessment Act. 

Although the regulations will establish conditions for proposed new exploratory oil and gas drilling projects that will be exempted from impact assessments, the regulations will streamline future proposal and approval processes and make it easier for proposed new projects in the region to proceed.

A window for public commentary on the proposed regulations is now open, and comments can be provided to the Impact Assessment Agency until April 30, 2020 (extended from orginal deadline of April 03). This will be the only opportunity for members of the public to provide feedback on the proposed regulations before they are drafted and given legal effect.

What Was East Coast Environmental Law's Role in the Regional Assessment?

East Coast Environmental Law applied for, and received, participant funding for the Regional Assessment. By participating in the Assessment process—alongside a number of other environmental non-governmental organizations that work in the Atlantic Region—we hoped to contribute meaningful input so that the information gathered by the Regional Assessment Committee could provide an appropriate foundation for future environmental decision-making by Canada's Minister of Environment and Climate Change.

East Coast Environmental Law lawyer Mike Kofahl took the lead on our participation in the Assessment process. On May 28, 2019, Mike participated in his first meeting with the Regional Assessment Committee. Afterwards, East Coast Environmental Law prepared a joint submission with the Sierra Club of Canada and the Ecology Action Centre to express concerns about the meeting and the plan for the Assessment process more generally. We provided that submission to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency on July 25, 2019. We sent a follow-up email to the Committee on September 9, 2019, reiterating our concerns. On September 19, 2019, the Committee provided us with an official response to our letter and email.

In September 2019, East Coast Environmental Law participated in several Technical Advisory Group sessions and provided input into those sessions. 

In October 2019, East Coast Environmental Law staff met with the Committee in St. John’s, Newfoundland, to raise ongoing concerns, provide information, and discuss various aspects of the Committee’s work. 

On December 17, 2019, East Coast Environmental Law sent a letter to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change—this one written in collaboration with the Balaena Institute for Cetacean Conservation Studies, the Ecology Action Centre and the Sierra Club of Canada. Again, the letter expressed concerns about the Regional Assessment process. 

After the Committee released its draft report on the Regional Assessment, East Coast Environmental Law reviewed the report carefully and submitted comments to the Committee.

What Are East Coast Environmental Law's Concerns about the Regional Assessment?

There was no assessment of risks

 The Committee acknowledged in its Final Report to the Minister that assessing and evaluating risk of offshore oil and gas drilling was beyond its timing and resources.  There are gaps in risks for marine mammals, benthic species, corals, and sponges. The Committee acknowledged that it did not have access to relevant scientific studies that should have been included in the report.  These studies may have influenced the recommendations.  There is also very little risk analysis on oil spills.

The cumulative effects assessment was incomplete 

 The Committee largely left assessment of cumulative effects of exploratory oil and gas projects to the future. It identified the land tenure process of the CNLOPB as the point in which the spatial and temporal distribution and intensity of future activities (part of cumulative effects) should be considered.  The exploratory drilling scenarios presented should at least provide the basis for forecasting reasonable extraction scenarios and conducting a cumulative effects assessment based on an intensity of extraction derived from past experience. These gaps include uncertainties in the effects of noise, seismic drilling, mitigation measures, ice, chronic oil pollution and other activities.

There was no meaningful public engagement 

Participants during the regional assessment process were frequently given materials and information at the last minute and given little time to provide commentary and feedback. Final public comments on the Draft Report were due only one week before the Final Report was provided to the Minister, making it unlikely (probably impossible) for the Committee to incorporate public feedback into the Final Report. 

Additionally, the Geographic Information System (“GIS”), which was heavily referenced and cited within the Draft Report,  was only opened to the public on February 3^rd. This meant that the public did not have access to all the information relevant to the regional assessment until almost two weeks into the 30-day public commentary period.  The GIS support tool is currently only partially available and, as such, its usefulness is extremely limited.  For example, the analytical capabilities of the GIS system must be upgraded in order to facilitate quantitative analyses, including cumulative effects. 

No areas within the Study Area are exempt from oil and gas 

 The Committee stated that it had no scientific information on which it could recommend possible areas to be excluded from exploratory oil and gas drilling. That is despite the Committee’s own findings that special areas within the Study Area might be particularly vulnerable, and submissions from participants in the regional assessment process that special areas should be exempted from exploratory oil and gas drilling.  Scientific studies are currently being undertaken on Marine Refuges, Fisheries Closure Areas, and Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems and a five-year review period may be too long for the assessment to be updated.

An assessment of impacts on Canada’s climate commitments was narrow

 The Committee’s assessment of the effects of exploratory oil and gas drilling projects on climate change, and specifically, greenhouse gases emissions, was narrow. Only GHG emissions from exploratory oil and gas drilling were included (potential emissions from future production projects was excluded) and methane was not included in the assessment. The Committee stated that it was limited to assessing exploratory oil and gas, despite including production facilitates and oil and gas generally when discussing potential benefits. 

No assessment of international obligations

While the Committee identified potential international conventions, which may create environmental obligations for Canada within the Study Area, it incorrectly concluded that exploratory oil and gas would have no effect on Canada’s obligations under these conventions.