Ontario's new environmental assessment program

Ontario's Bill 197 - now passed into law as the COVID-19 Economic Recovery Act, 2020 (S.O.2020, c.18) makes major changes to Ontario's 1975 Environmental Assessment Act (EAA).

On July 8^th, the same day as Ontario gave 1^st Reading to Bill 197, Ontario also introduced a package of several major environmental assessment ("EA") reforms. These major reforms include new exemptions, and changes to class and sectoral environmental assessments. These reforms merit serious attention for their scale and importance to Ontario EA.

The Toronto Environmental Law group at Gowling WLG has prepared a series of articles which address these EA reforms. Each newsletter relies on our group's current work and experience with Ontario environmental assessment and environmental law generally.

The first of the articles in this series was "What is and is not modernized in Ontario's re-write of its Environmental Assessment Act."

Here are three further articles which address changes to three specific aspects of Ontario's EA regime.

1. Changes to EAA for Indigenous Peoples - Adam Chamberlain, Laura Weingarden, Chris Hummel and Larissa Parker
2. Changes to EAs in Provincial Parks and Nature Reserves - Michael Finley and Anna Côté
3. Changes to Ministry of Transportation EAs - Anna Côté and Larissa Parker

For readers interested in Ontario EA changes affecting the waste and municipal sectors, please see:

• "The end of new landfills in Ontario? Proposed amendments to the Environmental Assessment Act and the impact on waste management"
• The future article on changes to the Municipal Class Environmental Assessment.