As Bill C-5 gets the nod from federal legislators, the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board (YESAB) won’t adapt to speed up impact assessments for projects deemed in the national interest.
The passing of Bill C-5 at the federal level won’t affect the Yukon’s risk assessment body or the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Act (YESAA), the legislation related to assessing potential impacts of proposed projects on the environment and social and economic dynamics in the territory.
That’s according to a June 24 email from Lavina Mulchandani, who works in communications for YESAB, in response to an inquiry from the News.
The federal bill, which received royal assent on June 26, is intended to accelerate nation-building projects and get rid of federal barriers to internal trade and labour mobility. While it puts forward changes to the federal Impact Assessment Act — which doesn’t apply in the Yukon — it doesn’t alter YESAB or YESAA, per Mulchandani.
Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for Canada-U.S. trade and president of the Privy Council of Canada, sponsored Bill C-5 amid a trade war with the United States led by U.S. President Donald Trump.
When reached by phone on July 2, LeBlanc’s press secretary said the minister wasn’t taking interviews at this time.
An email statement from Privy Council Office spokesperson Daniel Savoie confirmed that the Building Canada Act doesn’t affect projects assessed by the Northern Projects Management Office. Nation-building projects in the North will continue to undergo treaty-based environmental assessment processes in parallel with other relevant federal authorizations under the new streamlined process.
Savoie said the act allows for establishing a Federal Major Projects Office as a point of contact for proponents and coordination.
Not a single project has been designated as being of national interest so far.
The statement commits to working with provinces, territories and Indigenous people to signal and move forward on projects deemed in the national interest.
Before a project is designated, before conditions documents are issued and before any changes are made to the conditions documents, Indigenous peoples whose treaty rights may be affected are consulted, according to the statement.
Projects considered in the national interest will be considered for key factors: if they boost Canada’s autonomy and security, if they provide economic or other benefits to the nation, if they are likely to succeed in their execution, if they advance Indigenous peoples’ interests and if they contribute to “clean growth and meeting Canada’s climate change objectives.”
Former Yukon premier Ranj Pillai spoke with the News in early June, shortly after Canada’s premiers met as a group for the first time with recently elected Prime Minister Mark Carney about premiers’ nation-building pitches like highway, railway and energy projects. Pillai said he identified a Yukon-British Columbia electrical gird connection as his top nation-building ask.
Pillai holds onto his economic development portfolio in cabinet but has since been replaced by newly installed Yukon Liberal Party Leader Mike Pemberton as premier. Pillai stepped aside. During the Liberal leadership race last month, Pemberton echoed Pillai’s push on Yukon-B.C. grid connect.
In a statement issued on July 4, Pemberton said he discussed the grid connect project and the Yukon's assessment process with federal Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty when she was in the territory and with Yukon MP Brendan Hanley.
Such a project tying the Yukon to the North American grid via British Columbia remains in the early stages. Yukon government officials have indicated that bringing the project to fruition will potentially require billions more dollars and support from multiple First Nations whose traditional territories the project could cross.
Despite Bill C-5, Mulchandani said YESAB is making broad changes around the rules for assessments done by designated offices to improve the evaluation process with faster, more effective and more efficient evaluations.
As noted on the federal website, impact assessments in the Yukon are rooted in Chapter 12 of the Umbrella Final Agreement and the Yukon First Nation Final Agreements and more clearly defined by YESAA. YESAB maintains designated offices in six assessment districts that are responsible for conducting assessments in their regions.
Contact Dana Hatherly at dana.hatherly@yukon-news.com
