ID: 2224
Presenting Author: Carla Conkin
Session: 725 - After the Assessment – Where’s the Value and What Happened in the End?
Status: pending
Regulatory system design and interaction inform the causes, and potential solutions, for diminishing CIA value and the uptake of fast-tracked projects. Entrenching the value of CIA requires a system
System/process components provide indicators for how CIA/IA will play out and its value in the end. Failure to see system interaction and design means we remain blind to the causes and potential solutions for diminishing CIA value and the uptake of fast-tracked projects. This issue is not jurisdictionally specific but the examples will be Canadian.
System interaction and design must be looked at over the entire life cycle of the regulatory system and project.
At the starting gate, how do projects get to regulatory impact assessment? What happens at the beginning informs the CIA/IA and sets the stage of the entire process.
Recognition that other systems are ‘drivers’ (market, finance, corporate) and CIA/IA are merely ‘riders’ or passengers.
Project health and corporate health are not factored into the system but have significant impacts on the lifecycle and outcomes, including management of impacts.
How impact assessment enters decision and enforcement processes matters. There is tension when projects are siloed and effectiveness of measures and terms become complicated or untenable.
CIA/IA value is diminished when restricted to siloed projects rather than regionally based.
Regulatory systems can be designed for failure – consider nature of permitting systems and interaction with estimation of liabilities, use (or lack of) of effective financial security, timing and risk analysis (health of company and project over the lifecycle) leads to exposure and unaddressed impacts.
Solutions require a system lens and may not require legislative reform.
Carla Conkin is a Canadian regulatory expert, strategist and natural resource lawyer, who is a Roster Review Panel Member with the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada.