Upcoming events…
CANCELED: Addressing Climate Change Through Impact Assessment
***Please Note: Due to the tragic passing of our dear friend and colleague, Meinhard Doelle, this event has been canceled for the foreseeable future while we mourn this loss***
The need for rapid curtailment in greenhouse gas emissions to minimize the dangerous impacts of climate change is well recognized. This imperative has been indoctrinated into Canadian impact assessment processes with clear expectations outlined in the Impact Assessment Act, which clearly prescribes the need to determine whether a proposed new industrial project contributes to or hinders Canada's efforts to meet its climate commitments. How to implement such expectations in impact assessment practice, however, is far less clear. In this webinar, our panel of experts will first situate impact assessment in the broader context of climate change politics in Canada. Then we will discuss how Canada’s community of impact assessment practitioners, policymakers and scholars can work to ensure that Canadian impact assessment becomes an important means of addressing climate change. Panelists will provide an overview of Canada’s climate commitments, and then delve into exploring how GHG emissions should factor into what projects get assessed, the scope of an assessment of a project’s GHG emissions, and ultimately how a project’s anticipated emissions should be factored into decisions about whether and under what conditions a project should be approved.
Panelists:
Meinhard Doelle- Dalhousie University
Robert Gibson- University of Waterloo
Kathryn Harrison- University of British Columbia
Sharon Mascher- University of Calgary
September 22 1:00pm-2:30pm ET
Register HERE
Uncertainties in Impact Assessment: Past experiences and future directions
Register HERE
3-4:30 pm EST
Although uncertainty has always been an unavoidable aspect of impact assessment, which scholars and practitioners have found different ways to manage, uncertainty is increasingly on our radar. There are several reasons for this, but two stand out. First, the expanded scope of impact assessment mandated by the Impact Assessment Act (2019), which calls for acknowledgment of a broader scope of impacts, and the inclusion of wider forms and sources of knowledge. Second, external events, of a social and economic nature, and extreme events, and rapid changes associated with climate change, have heightened attention on uncertainty, with implications for the assessment of potential impacts of industrial development.
What are the implications, and how do we approach decision-making in this context? First, we need to acknowledge that efforts to address uncertainties have been in practice for some time. In this webinar, we seek to create space for delving into the challenges that uncertainties of various types pose for impact assessment. We have brought together a panel of leading scholars, policymakers, and practitioners, who will address key questions including:
Given the central role played by uncertainty in risk-based decision-making, how has uncertainty been characterized in IA to date?
What are the many forms of uncertainties that arise in the context of impact assessment, from lack of information to the uncertainties that emerge with differences in value sets and linguistic ambiguities?
What is the relationship between uncertainty and significance determinations?
What are the political implications of the presence of uncertainty, particularly from the perspective of affected communities?
Panelists:
Scott Findlay (Institute of Environment, Univ. of Ottawa; Researcher in Residence, Office of the Chief Science Advisor, Cana)
Bram Noble (Dept. of Geography, Univ. of Saskatchewan)
Alan Ehrlich (Manager of Environmental Assessment, Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board)
Gwen Blue (Dept. of Geography, University of Calgary)
Environmental Justice, Racism ,and Impact Assessment in Canada
Register HERE
Discrimination against Indigenous, African-Canadian, and other marginalized communities in Canada can take on many forms: one of them is the disproportionate placement and subsequent ways of managing hazardous sites, including landfills and polluting industries, where such communities predominantly live. This was recognized in a federal private member’s Bill (C-230), A National Strategy to Redress Environmental Racism Act, which passed second reading of the previous (43rd) Parliament of the House of Commons (before it was dissolved in August).
Whatever the fate of this issue in legislation in the 44th Parliament, there is a pressing need for the Impact Assessment community of scholars and practitioners to ask whether and how IAs, as they have been conducted and how they are conducted going forward, can contribute to the challenge of such desperately needed redress.
Relevant questions that will emerge in this webinar include:
Are there new capacities opened up within Impact Assessment Act (2019)?
Do cumulative effects assessment methods and practices serve in this regard?
Do we have the data we need to make good decisions going forward?
Does environmental justice serve as a lens through which to strengthen IAs?
As a form of environmental management, is IA already ‘too late’ to be effective?
This panel will feature the voices of two leaders in Canada working on the frontlines of environmental racism:
Dr. Ingrid Waldron, HOPE Chair in Peace and Health, Faculty of Humanities, McMaster University;
Sharilyn Johnston, Environment Coordinator, Aamjiwnaang First Nation (Sarnia, ON).
After their two presentations, there will be generous time for discussion.
Text of Bill C-230 (passed second reading in 43rd Parliament)
https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/43-2/bill/C-230/second-reading
Youtube 2019 TIFF trailer to There’s Something in the Water:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKhIYFDnCoY
https://globalnews.ca/news/8369470/ontario-first-nation-air-pollution-cancer-causing-chemicals-new-data/
https://globalnews.ca/news/8378312/ford-government-slammed-vital-air-pollution-data-aamjiwnaang-first-nation/
Link to Dr. Waldron's book: https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/there8217s-something-in-the-water& ENRICH website: www.enrichproject.org
Gender-Based Analysis Plus in Canada
Register HERE
The importance of doing Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) in Impact Assessment (IA) is increasingly recognized and was given new prominence in Canada’s Impact Assessment Act. But implementation is complex, raising questions for policymakers, practitioners, and scholars alike. In this webinar, panelists from diverse sectors will discuss the potential and pitfalls of doing GBA+ in IA. The discussion will address what GBA+ is, why it is important in IA, and will share experiences and lessons learned from projects to date. The panel will also open up overarching questions:
What should the role of GBA+ in IA be?,
Can it create positive change?
How can we meaningfully include identities beyond gender under the “+”?
Can GBA+ serve as an invitation for deeper intersectional analysis of how humans and nature interact?
Panelists:
Deborah Stienstra- University of Guelph
Mary Boyden- Keepers of the Circle
Anya Knechtel- Oxfam Canada
For a good introduction to GBA+ in IA by the Impact Assessment Agency Canada go here. A recent study that Dr. Deborah Steinstra authored on the subject can also be found here.
Webinar on Impact Assessment in Canada under Covid
Join us: April 26, 2021
1:00 pm- 2:30 pm ET
Watch the Webinar Recording HERE
Confirmed panelists:
Peter Croal (Environmental Consultant https://ca.linkedin.com/in/peter-croal-29652a12);
Cheryl Chetkiewicz (Conservation Biologist, Wildlife Conservation Society);
Martin Olszynski, University of Calgary, Faculty of Law);
Jackie Lerner (Director, EIA and Community Engagement, SNC-Lavalin)
Description
The global COVID-19 pandemic has had multiple repercussions for Impact Assessment (IA) processes in Canada and elsewhere. After more than a year, it’s time to take stock and look forward. For example, the economic challenges facing resource development sectors during the pandemic have led to calls on governments to lessen responsibilities for environmental monitoring that underpin that information basis needed for IA. Further, stakeholder engagement necessary for robust consultation processes in IA in some cases have had to be curtailed or modified. What are the impacts of such pandemic-related pressures on IA, and what will be their legacy going forward in Canada?
This panel, hosted by the NEDIA project, brings together IA practitioners and scholars who offer a variety of perspectives that can inform a pro-active response to this and future pandemics for the sake of robust IA. Guiding questions are:
How has the pandemic affected our abilities to address the full spectrum of impacts that Canada’s new IA Act urges?
What are the potential policy and legal implications of interim measures that have been introduced into IA procedures in response to the pandemic?
Are there broader lessons that the pandemic has generated for future IA processes?
Our four panelists from across Canada will offer a short presentation (ca. 10 minutes), offering their personal perspectives on these, followed by a chance for Q&A and discussion open to all participants.
The session will be recorded and available after the event.
Hosts: Ian G. Stewart, University of King’s College and Debra J. Davidson, University of Alberta, co-Directors of the SSHRC Partnership Develop Project, Advancing Impact Assessment for Canada’s Socio-ecological Systems.
Want to get a head start on the topic we will be discussing? Check out this relevant article: Environmental Regulation and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review of Regulator Response in Canada
For an international perspective, see HERE
