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2. Cumulative Effects: Regulating AllImpacts on the LandBy Jodi RoachNature is suffering a “death by a thousand cuts” because BC fails to keep trackof the combined impacts of the countless different activities that take place onthe same landscape. Individual mines, hydro projects, oil and gas operations,and forestry are regulated separately – but government fails to monitor andmanage the collective effects of these activities on the natural world.For example, the law doesn’t require environmental assessments for manytypes of projects, such as a single gas well or multiple seismic lines. However,a thousand such wells and seismic lines have a monumental impact on theenvironment – and there is no environmental assessment of that massivecumulative impact. Worse still, we fail to assess the impact of those thousandwells combined with the logging, mining and hydro development that isoccurring in the same ecosystem.Even when a formal provincial environmental assessment of a major newproject is done, it often fails to rigorously address the cumulative impacts that16Maintaining SuperNatural BC: Selected Law Reform Proposals
will result from the interaction of the project with other activities. In contrast,the federal Environmental Assessment Act requires that cumulative effectsbe considered in federal assessment of projects. Alberta and Yukon laws alsorequire cumulative effects assessment. Yet BC’s Environmental AssessmentAct lags behind – it does not have mandatory requirements regardingcumulative effects.The BC Environmental Assessment Office claims, in its 2009 User Guide,that it considers cumulative impacts in assessments of projects – but it is stillnot mandatory. Nothing in the provincial Act actually requires cumulativeassessment of projects under review.As a result of growing concerns about cumulative effects, the Forest PracticesBoard (FPB) investigated the issue. The FPB studied the combined impactsof multiple industries on drinking water, soil and caribou habitat in theKiskatinaw River watershed near Dawson Creek. In 2011, the FPB publishedtheir findings in a special report titled Cumulative Effects: from Assessmenttowards Management.The FPB concluded that the cumulative effect of resource development in BC“remains largely unknown and unmanaged.” It criticized government’s failureto assess and manage cumulative effects.The FPB went on to recommend that cumulative effects assessment beembedded in the overall land management/land use planning system. It alsorecommended that government set specific and measurable objectives for thekinds and amounts of human activities that should take place on the land; thatthese objectives govern decisions to grant resource development rights; andthat government monitor cumulative effects to ensure the overall objectivesare met.Environmental assessment, land use planning and regulatory officials mustensure that government and industry meet cumulative effects objectives – andensure that appropriate action is taken to rectify environmental degradationwhere it occurs.There have to be limits to development in some areas. Where environmentalobjectives are being breached, then mandatory mitigation measures should berequired – or additional development should not be approved. Such oversightis not only needed for major projects that undergo formal environmentalassessments – but also for projects and activities that don’t require formalenvironmental assessments.The challenge we face is clear: our rich natural heritage may be lost if we failto assess and manage cumulative effects. Indeed, when numerous disparateenvironmental impacts occur across an ecosystem, “the whole is far greaterthan the sum of its parts.” To deal with this problem, government needs to:• Establish specific and measurable landscape objectives for the kinds andamounts of human activities that should take place on the land;• Define specific environmental impact thresholds that must not be exceeded;Maintaining SuperNatural BC: Selected Law Reform Proposals 17
Page 2 and 3: 2Maintaining SuperNatural BC: Selec
Page 4 and 5: MAINTAINING SUPERNATURAL BC FOR OUR
Page 6: ContentsA. Planning and Environment
Page 9 and 10: Note that many of the articles refl
Page 11 and 12: A. Planning and EnvironmentalAssess
Page 13 and 14: • Destroy an important cultural a
Page 15: For more information, see:Environme
Page 19 and 20: 3. Land Use Planning for Nature,Cli
Page 21 and 22: The cumulative effects of human act
Page 23 and 24: Implement and sustain monitoring pr
Page 25 and 26: B. Regulating IndustriesMaintaining
Page 27 and 28: the vast majority of the province,
Page 29 and 30: capability, fisheries sensitive wat
Page 31 and 32: ∘∘∘∘Nations’ land claims,
Page 33 and 34: Limiting Mining Minister’s Discre
Page 35 and 36: • Since 1998, Ministry of Environ
Page 37 and 38: 7. OIL AND GAS: Reforming Oil andGa
Page 39 and 40: drilled as close as 100 metres to a
Page 41 and 42: Oil and gas companies can drill on
Page 43 and 44: 8. OIL AND GAS: It’s Time to Regu
Page 45 and 46: found in one of BC’s main fields,
Page 47 and 48: files/publications/Oil%20and%20Gas%
Page 49 and 50: - from strengthening corporate timb
Page 51 and 52: New mechanisms for local self-deter
Page 53 and 54: C. Protecting Wildlife & WaterMaint
Page 55 and 56: wintering ground or stopover. Unlik
Page 57 and 58: On The Edge: British Columbia’s U
Page 59 and 60: Given that all water systems (both
Page 61 and 62: water as a public resource that the
Page 63 and 64: 12. Protecting Fish in British Colu
Page 65 and 66: This gutting of fish protection law
Page 67 and 68:
13. Privatizing Salmon Protection:T
Page 69 and 70:
uilt on roughly one-third of the pr
Page 71 and 72:
This policy lurch makes it even mor
Page 73 and 74:
Planning must involve robust public
Page 75 and 76:
has led to such an increase in cost
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For more information, see:Reforming
Page 79 and 80:
fail to co-ordinate regulatory effo
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• Powers to enter into agreements
Page 83 and 84:
D. The Urban EnvironmentMaintaining
Page 85 and 86:
coordinating land use, transportati
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18. Protecting Natural Areas in our
Page 89 and 90:
stewardship isn’t just a matter o
Page 91 and 92:
of less than 20 cents on the dollar
Page 93 and 94:
of-way. The resulting greenways net
Page 95 and 96:
20. Reinventing RainwaterManagement
Page 97 and 98:
LID effort in North America - a com
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E. PollutionMaintaining SuperNatura
Page 101 and 102:
pumped oil into a Saanich basement
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22. Reforming Contaminated SitesLaw
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of Compliance (COC) approvals. The
Page 107 and 108:
F. Climate Change andEnergyMaintain
Page 109 and 110:
Meanwhile, Environment Canada’s s
Page 111 and 112:
24. In Defence of the Carbon TaxBy
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over. BC’s carbon tax is still no
Page 115 and 116:
generations of BC ratepayers and ta
Page 117 and 118:
William Andrews is a BC lawyer who
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happen when people heat their homes
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G. Ensuring Justice forNatureMainta
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• In 2003, the public’s right t
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Regulation Improvement Coalition an
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to provide the courts with the best
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perhaps the people can. By putting
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Chris Tollefson (D. Gilliland and J
Page 134 and 135:
British Columbians must have the ri
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for both present and future generat
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that SLAPPs have a range of negativ
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Anti-SLAPP Advisory Panel: Report t
Page 142 and 143:
An Environment Commissioner would p
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144 Maintaining SuperNatural BC: Se
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33. Reliance on QualifiedProfession
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Does this new approach have an adeq
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34. Reforming Freedom ofInformation
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ecords in relation to such a ‘pro
Page 154 and 155:
Information and Privacy Commissione
Page 156 and 157:
Gord McAdams was a “whistleblower
Page 158 and 159:
could result. The legislation shoul
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