Under the Environmental Assessment Act, two ministers are responsible for making the decision on whether or not to issue an environmental assessment certificate for a project undergoing an environmental assessment. The first is the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy. The other is the "responsible minister", who is the minister, through their Cabinet position, with responsibility for activities in a sector.
An alternate responsible minister is designated for each of the categories for situations where the organization proposing to build a project is a government agency (for instance, a Crown corporation or a ministry) and the responsible minister is in charge of that government agency.
The following table lists the responsible ministers and alternative responsible ministers for each category of reviewable projects.
| Category of Reviewable Projects | Responsible Minister | Alternate Responsible Minister |
|---|---|---|
| Energy Projects | Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation | Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation |
| Mine Projects | Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation | Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation |
| Industrial Projects – forest products industries | Forests | Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation |
| Industrial Projects – industries other than forest products | Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation | Forests |
| Tourist Destination Resort Projects | Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport | Municipal Affairs |
| Waste Disposal Projects | Municipal Affairs | Water, Land and Resource Stewardship |
| Water Management Projects | Water, Land and Resource Stewardship | Municipal Affairs |
| Transportation Projects | Transportation and Infrastructure | Municipal Affairs |
The Reviewable Projects Regulation sets out the criteria for determining which projects should be required to undergo an environmental assessment, by defining prescribed project categories and providing thresholds for each category that seek to indicate the potential for adverse effects for their specific project type. Projects that fall into a prescribed category and meet the thresholds specific to its category require an assessment under the Reviewable Projects Regulation. These are called reviewable projects.
The Interactive Interpretation Guide helps explain how to determine if a project is reviewable.
A PDF version of the interpretation guide is also available for accessibility (25MB).
This regulation s ets out the conditions under which in-progress projects under the 2002 Act are sufficiently advanced in their permitting and/or construction to not be reviewable under the 2018 Act.
This regulation sets out the conditions by which projects in the environmental assessment process under the 2002 Act will transition to the 2018 Act.
The Environmental Assessment Office charges fees for a range of services, from undertaking environmental assessments through to compliance inspections.
The fees provide partial recovery of the costs incurred by the Environmental Assessment Office in delivering high-quality and timely environmental assessments. Revenue from fees allows the organization to maintain appropriate staffing levels. The funding is also used to support other provincial agencies in their participation in the environmental assessment process. A table outlining the fees is available in the regulation on BC Laws.
This regulation enables Environmental Assessment Office compliance and enforcement officers to issue tickets with associated monetary penalties to proponents who are not in compliance with their certificate conditions, or exemption order conditions.
This regulation enables conservation officers to conducts inspections under the 2018 Environmental Assessment Act.
This regulation enables natural resource officers to conduct inspections under the 2018 Environmental Assessment Act.
This regulation identifies prescribed protected areas (as defined in other enactments) for the purposes of the reviewable projects regulation, which determines which projects must automatically undergo an environmental assessment. This regulation is also related to the Minister's authority to terminate a project from the environmental assessment process if it would have extraordinarily adverse effects on a listed protected area. A table outlining the prescribed protected areas is available in the regulation on BC Laws.
Administrative penalties are financial penalties that can be issued for prescribed contraventions of the Environmental Assessment Act or failures to comply with the Environmental Assessment Act, including failing to comply with the requirements of an environmental assessment certificate or an exemption order made under the Environmental Assessment Act. Regulated parties will be given prior notice of the EAO’s intention to issue an administrative penalty and provided with an opportunity to respond before an administrative penalty is issued.
In 2022 and 2023, Tahltan Central Government, the Province and the Environmental Assessment Office entered into the first two consent-based decision-making agreements under the 2018 Environmental Assessment Act and the 2019 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, related to the environmental assessments of two mining projects in Tahltan Territory.
Under the 2022 agreement, the Province and Tahltan Central Government will collaboratively carry out their own assessment process to inform their separate decision on whether the Eskay Creek Mine Revitalization project should proceed. A second consent agreement was signed in 2023 for the collaborative assessments on proposed major changes to the existing Red Chris Porphyry Copper-Gold Mine. Neither project can proceed without Tahltan consent.
The agreements honour Tahltan’s jurisdiction in land-management decisions in Tahltan Territory, in recognition of Tahltan’s title and rights, and represent a step forward in the co-governance relationship between the two governments. These agreements advance reconciliation, provide clarity and predictability in the environmental assessment process and establish innovative new ways for the EAO, Tahltan and proponents to work together.
Agreements
The Environmental Assessment Office has collaboration agreements in place with the Lake Babine and the Kitselas Nations, authorized under s. 41 of the Environmental Assessment Act. Collaboration agreements describe how the EAO and the nation will collaborate on future environmental assessments. Agreements include additional process steps for environmental assessments that supplement the default process outlined in the Environmental Assessment Act, such as additional opportunities to seek to achieve consensus, and provides clear and united direction to proponents on how to work productively and respectfully with the nations.
The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (formerly the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency) is the federal counterpart to British Columbia's Environmental Assessment Office (EAO). The EAO and the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (the Agency) maintain a strong relationship to ensure projects requiring both federal and provincial environmental assessments are conducted as efficiently as possible.
The Impact Assessment Cooperation Agreement is a consolidation and update of existing memoranda of understanding between the EAO and the Agency that have been in place in various forms since 2004 (under the Environmental Assessment Act, 2002). This agreement applies to all projects being assessed under the Environmental Assessment Act, 2018.
When a project falls under both provincial and federal environmental assessment responsibility, the two governments will cooperate on the environmental assessment while retaining their respective decision-making powers. The cooperation options include:
The Federal Minister has approved seventeen environmental assessments to be conducted as substituted assessments: