The Application of Ontario's Environmental Assessment Act to Mine Development in Ontario: A Case Study of Northern Ontario Mines

English Abstract:

In the province of Ontario, the Ontario Environmental Assessment Act (EAA) evolved for public sector developments, including projects by provincial ministries and agencies, municipalities, and conservation authorities. Typically the EAA does not apply to private sector proponents, i.e. a proposal for an entire mine project is not subject to the EAA because mines are developed by private sector proponents. The Class Environmental Assessment (EA) is a streamlined self-assessment process for smaller activities with readily predictable and manageable impacts that was developed in the context of southern Ontario and later applied to developments in northern Ontario. Under the EAA, mine developments by private developers do not need to do an individual provincial EA, but certain aspects of a mine may require a Class EA, e.g. electricity transmission facilities, waste management, and other ancillary infrastructure. Therefore, in the past, some mines in northern Ontario would undergo Class EAs for certain aspects of their mine, but not the entire project itself. However, impacts in northern Ontario are necessarily different from southern Ontario due to different ecological conditions, so the Class EA process does not work automatically in a northern context. The Victor Diamond Mine in Attiwapiskat is a prime example of this failure: the Class EA process failed to predict impacts specific to this region. Recently, several proponents have undertaken individual EAs for their northern Ontario mines through voluntary agreements with the province. This work examines whether the EAA can be successfully applied to private sector mine developments in the context of northern Ontario, and whether the purposes of the EAA are satisfied in doing so.