The application, filed by Ecojustice lawyers on behalf of Ecology Action Centre, Sierra Club Canada Foundation and WWF-Canada, alleges that the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada relied on a deficient assessment report to accelerate exploratory drilling in the region. The organizations aim to prevent the government from exempting similar activity from future impact assessments and setting a dangerous precedent for future RAs in the country.

An increase in offshore oil and gas exploration poses a direct threat to marine ecosystems and could shatter Canada’s commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Nevertheless, the RA Committee declined to analyze the risk to the local ecology and the cumulative effects of offshore drilling and recommended that the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board complete it. The government has also refused to hit pause on exploratory drilling projects in an area of ocean larger than the province of Alberta, before ensuring deficiencies in the report are resolved.

The government has signalled that it plans to use the flawed RA process to exempt future exploratory drilling projects from the more fulsome federal impact assessment process required by the Impact Assessment Act without understanding the risks of doing so. This could put all of Canada at risk of using this flawed example in future RAs.