Despite the opposition of public interest groups, including AEN members Ecojustice, Sierra Club Canada, and the Environmental Law Centre, and a recommendation from the Senate Finance Committee, the Senate voted to pass the budget bill (C-9) including provisions to weaken the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. The Environmental Law Centre's Adam Driedzic weighs in on the impacts on the environmental assessment process and the "exclusion of the public from decision-making on matters of public interest."
You don’t have to be an environmentalist to be concerned with this one. For the second straight year, the federal budget bill passed with Trojan horse provisions unrelated to the budget. The perennial target is the federal environmental assessment regime, but the real victim is the public.