In May, the gouvernement du canada proposed a six-point reform to speed up project approvals in Canada, then gave stakeholders 30 days to react. The plan is laid out in a six-page document that asks three questions, but it does not say clearly where or how members of the public should submit comments.
Christian Baril, a biologist, said he wrote the day after the announcement because he could not find how to send comments to the federal government. He asked, "Où et comment se prononce-t-on?" and said, "J’ai trouvé que le texte était alambiqué, sibyllin".
Carney government document
The document from the Carney government sets out six broad lines for accelerating approvals, including a bureau for Crown-Indigenous consultations, changes to the responsibilities of the Impact Assessment Agency, and exemptions from species-at-risk studies for certain projects. It is presented on six pages, a format that leaves little room for comparison with what would change under current rules.
Baril said, "Je suis biologiste, il y a des codes que je comprends, et je n’ai même pas les éléments pour me faire une tête, donc, pour le citoyen moyen, c’est pas mal complexe." He also criticized the absence of comparison elements in the document that would show the public what would change.
Public consultations portal
At the time of the article, the consultation was not listed in the federal public consultations portal, which had more than 110 open consultations. Radio-Canada found the email address for public participation in the government's "Unité de l’économie canadienne" section, but the document itself does not indicate where or how to participate.
Louis-Robert Beaulieu-Guay, a researcher at the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy in Saskatchewan, said, "c'est une espèce d'amalgame qui n'a pas beaucoup de sens". He added, "On comprend que c'est tout derrière la même loi, sauf que c'est six choses qui sont très différentes".
Consultation value
Beaulieu-Guay said, "Tant qu’on ne sera pas davantage dans le détail et dans la technique, les consultations n’auront pas beaucoup de valeur". He also said, "C’est très difficile pour des gens non informés, le public, les communautés autochtones ainsi que les acteurs économiques, de se prononcer sur de grandes i".
For now, the practical issue for anyone trying to weigh in is simple: the government has opened a 30-day response window, but the public still has to piece together where to send comments from the federal website itself and the government's economy section. The consultation is already under way, but the route into it is the part critics say should have been clear from the start.
