Canadian Environmental Assessment Act

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA) is federal legislation that applies to any federal authority, such as Transport Canada, that is considering taking a
specific action in support of a project. CEAA came into force in 1995. Legislative amendments were introduced in
2001 and came into force on October 30, 2003.

CEAA and its associated regulations outline the responsibilities, requirements and procedures for the environmental assessment (EA) of projects and establish a process for assessing the potential environmental effects of projects in which the Government of Canada has a decision-making responsibility.

The purposes of CEAA are:

• to ensure that projects are considered in a careful and precautionary manner before federal authorities take action in connection with them, in order to ensure that such projects do not cause significant adverse environmental effects;

• to encourage responsible authorities (RA) to take actions that promote sustainable development and thereby achieve or maintain a healthy environment and a healthy economy;

• to ensure that RAs carry out their responsibilities in a coordinated manner with a view to eliminating unnecessary duplication in the EA process;

• to promote cooperation and coordinated action between federal and provincial governments with respect to EA processes for projects;

• to promote communication and cooperation between RAs and Aboriginal peoples with respect to EA;

• to ensure that projects that are to be carried out in Canada or on federal lands do not cause significant adverse environmental effects outside the jurisdictions in which the projects are carried out; and

• to ensure that there be opportunities for timely and meaningful public participation throughout the EA process.

The Act is founded on the following guiding principles:

• to achieve sustainable development by promoting high quality EA;

• to integrate environmental factors into planning and decision-making processes;

• to anticipate and prevent degradation of environmental quality; and

• to facilitate public participation in the EA of projects where the federal government is involved.

A list of Transport Canada's EAs is available on the Canadian Environmental Assessment Registry.