Reductions in federal oversight of aquatic systems in Canada: implications of the new Navigation Protection Act

The reduction of environmental legislation and regulation has become a common practice for governments looking to reduce government overhead while boosting private sector investment. Following this trend, in 2012 Canada enacted major legislative changes to its environmental policies. The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA) was overhauled, and related Acts, including the (federal) Navigable Waters Protection Act (NWPA), saw their regulatory processes reduced. There is a need for aquatic scientists to better understand the potential implications for environmental protection and the systems we study. We provide an overview of changes to the CEAA and NWPA before quantifying the duration and outcomes of NWPA-triggered assessments, as well as the implications of changes to the CEAA and NWPA. We find that 87% of environmental assessments that were triggered by the NWPA in the last 10 years were completed within 2 years and that the majority resulted in project approval. Of the assessments reviewed, 58% were on water bodies that are no longer protected under the new Navigation Protection Act, suggesting that the combination of these changes and new Acts will result in substantial reductions of environmental assessments on aquatic systems.