ID: 1600
Presenting Author: Mathilde Butler
Session: 566 - Engaging Stakeholders in Adversity: Practices, Pitfalls, and Pathways
Status: pending
This presentation provides a critical analysis of the extent to which Indigenous rights have been asserted through regional assessments (RAs) under the Impact Assessment Act (IAA19) in Canada.
Following the 2016 the federal commitment made by Justin Trudeau to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), the Government of Canada began to amend supporting pieces of legislation, including the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act of 2012 (CEAA12). The legislation was replaced in 2019 with the Impact Assessment Act (IAA19), which includes several sections on regional assessments (RAs). According to impact assessment (IA) experts, RAs aim to provide an opportunity to assert Indigenous rights, and to build Nation-to-Nation relationships between the Government of Canada and Indigenous peoples across the country; however, discontent has been expressed during, and following the completion of the Regional Assessment of Offshore Oil and Gas Exploratory Drilling East of Newfoundland and Labrador. This apparent gap between federal pledges and the extent of the assertion of Indigenous rights within RAs led me to ask the following: to what extent are Indigenous rights asserted through regional assessments (RAs) under the Impact Assessment Act (IAA19)? This report assesses the extent to which eight rights from the UNDRIP that are specifically relevant to the field of IA have been implemented within the sections of IAA19 that pertain to RAs, along with the extent to which they have been put into practice in the report of the RA mentioned above. Findings reveal that the right to financial assistance is the only criterion of analysis that has been entirely implemented within the IAA19.
Mathilde is am an ambitious, trilingual motivated woman passionate about environmental policy analysis, fighting climate change and systemic inequalities.