Each large or high risk development project in Canada pours a ton of resources into completing an Environmental Impact assessment that examines the project specific and cumulative impacts of the project on many different aspects of the environment, the local community and society. These assessments are the primary tool for gathering information to feed into the project hearings and approvals. Governments read through these assessments and require additional info for anything that is unclear or incorrect. Stakeholders also have access to the assessments and can present their views at the approval hearings.
This process has been criticized for the level of voice it gives to affected and concerned people (stakeholders) but generally speaking there is some pretty high quality and important research done because of the process.
But then the EAs sit on a shelf. It is incredibly labour intensive to track down relevant EIAs and extract information from them. The actual data is not publicly linked back to the EIAs to track the projects performance.
my attempt...
I signed up at http://environment.alberta.ca/1274.html to the list which updates on Alberta EIAs are sent to. This was to try to get informed and up to date on EIA related news.
Recently through this list I was informed of the survey above:
"The following notice has been forwarded to you in case you wish to participate in the federal government survey. One of the strategic priorities of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (the Agency) is to advance the science and practice of environmental assessment in Canada. The Agency is currently exploring the potential of a national, collaborative online knowledge system to improve EA, particularly to help inform regional cumulative effects assessment.In order to inform the conceptualization and design of a knowledge system, a user needs determination is being conducted by Lynch Stewart and Associates. As such, we are asking for your participation in an online questionnaire. The purpose of this questionnaire is to provide a more comprehensive profile of the interest of all stakeholders involved in EA knowledge generation in Canada. Please use this questionnaire to communicate your issues and concerns, and recommend the kinds of improvements you would like to see. We are asking that you please take 15 minutes to complete a short questionnaire (25 questions - primarily multiple-choice) online before Friday, March 6th, 2009. Please forward the questionnaire to your EA colleagues if you think they would like to contribute their views. To protect anonymity, questionnaire responses will be kept confidential and the results will only be released in aggregated tables. Please direct any questions you may have to info@lynchstewart.com. https://www.keysurvey.com/survey/241357/129c/ "
my attempt at a better world for today is to try to articulate my feedback for the government on EIA process in this survey. I feel like acting when people search out your opinion is one of the most effective ways to engage in creating actual change. I think this was one of those opportunities. What do you think?
For a taste of why EIAs and EIA policy matters, and a more activist action check out: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5654/t/3791/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1092
Sounds good my dear. I would love it if you could include mention in your posts about whether this is something your reader can take action on too - for example, as a non climate engineer, I wasn't sure if this is something I was able to do as well.
ReplyDeleteThis action is not just for engineers but does require fairly specific knowledge of Environmental Assessments and the process surrounding them. I you had time you could go to http://environment.alberta.ca/1274.html and read some of the documents to learn and form an opinion and then complete the survey. probably not a high impact use of your time though if you don't have thoughts already on the subject.
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