On March 26th, 2026, the Coastal Access Working Group (CAWG), based in Nova Scotia, Canada, hosted the inaugural International Coastal Access Symposium (ICAS). This virtual symposium invited speakers from around the world to share stories, research, and policy insights and advances related to protecting, preserving, and enhancing public coastal access.

Ideally, RAs will be used to contribute regional-scale cumulative effects assessments and enhance our collective understanding of how projects and activities contribute to long-term sustainability in the face of the climate emergency, extinction-level biodiversity loss, and global pollution. Used appropriately and effectively, regional assessment is a valuable—even essential—tool to facilitate early planning, consultation, engagement, and scientific study, which will make future, project-level planning and assessment processes more rigorous, consistent, and predictable.

We write as civil society organizations, which work collaboratively with Indigenous groups, governments, industry, and coastal communities to support Canada in reaching its commitments to protect the marine environment in Atlantic Canada (Waponahkik). While we are pleased that Canada’s “A Force of Nature” has been released, we are highly concerned that efforts in Atlantic Canada have stalled as a result of provincial government opposition and that opportunities to leverage federal commitments to support industrial development are not being taken to support conservation.

We are among the conservation and environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from across the country that worked with your government for over four years to help modernize the Fisheries Act, one of Canada’s oldest laws. The Fisheries Act is also one of Canada’s strongest environmental laws, particularly following the 2019 modernization and restoration of lost protections that occurred in 2012. We have continued working in good faith with your department to implement the Act and to protect fish and fish habitat.

New Brunswick has an important opportunity to modernize its mineral resource legislation in a manner that supports responsible resource development while strengthening environmental protection, transparency, accountability, and public confidence.

The recommendations outlined in this letter would provide the Province with stronger tools to prevent environmental harm, improve compliance and enforcement, support meaningful public participation, and reduce the long-term risks and liabilities associated with mining activities.

The Nova Scotia Government requested the proposed RA to accelerate oil and gas exploration by exempting projects from impact assessment (“IA”). That contradicts the fundamental purpose of RAs under the Impact Assessment Act. RAs are intended to be independent planning tools that support project-level IAs through the study of regional impacts, cumulative effects and long-term sustainability. RAs are not intended to fast-track resource development by exempting projects from IAs.

This submission reflects and builds on a submission by a group of environmental non-profit organizations, including ECEL, to the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada’s (the “Agency”) on its consultation paper, “‘One Project, One Review’: Cooperation Agreements for the Assessment of Major Projects” (the “Joint Submission”), and submissions ECEL has made on draft cooperation agreements between the government of Canada and the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island

In recent months, we have received inquiries from individual community members, community groups, and environmental organizations in Nova Scotia concerning the procurement process that the Nova Scotia Independent Energy System Operator (“NS IESO”) initiated in autumn 2025 to seek the construction of one or two fast-acting power generation facilities in Pictou County.

As an organization that supports an equitable energy transition away from fossil fuels and toward clean, renewable, and sustainable energy sources like offshore wind, East Coast Environmental Law (“ECEL”) opposes new oil and gas exploration and development in Nova Scotia’s offshore.

The perspectives shared through these workshops demonstrate that youth in New Brunswick are eager to contribute to environmental decision-making. They view environmental rights not only as legal protections, but as essential to their health, well-being, and future.

This submission reflects and builds on a submission by group of environmental non-profit organizations, including ECEL, to the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada’s (the “Agency”) on its consultation paper, “‘One Project, One Review’: Cooperation Agreements for the Assessment of Major Projects” (the “Joint Submission”), and submissions ECEL has made on draft cooperation agreements between the Government of Canada and the provinces of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

Canada’s commitment to protecting at least 30% of the ocean by 2030 is grounded in Canadian and international law and policy, and is a necessary contribution to global conservation efforts intended to prevent ecosystem collapse and biodiversity loss in the ocean.

Our clients continue to have serious concerns about how critical habitat is purportedly identified in the 2025 Proposed Update, especially when compared to the clear identification of critical habitat in the original Recovery Strategy for the Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus melodus) in Canada (2012 Recovery Strategy).

This submission responds to the questions posed in the Call for Information feedback form on the CNSOER website, addressing those questions in the same order in which they appear online.

East Coast Environmental Law Responses to Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Advancing Environmental Equity Survey

This new work is more important than ever, as the government pursues major projects on fast timelines and with reduced regulatory oversight. Exacerbating environmental racism and injustice is not in the national interest. Advancing environmental justice is a nation-building strategy.

This backgrounder presents information that was delivered in workshops in Newfoundland and Labrador in the autumn of 2025, providing an overview of how members of the public can contribute to the enforcement of environmental laws in the province.

This backgrounder presents information that was delivered in workshops in Newfoundland and Labrador in the autumn of 2025, providing an overview of how environmental laws are made and changed in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Submission to the New Brunswick Department of Environment and Local Government on New Brunswick’s “Draft State of the Coast Report Development”

Recommendations to the NB Department of Environment and Local Government on Modernizing the Clean Water Act