Funding Opportunities

Tri-Council Guidelines on Environmental Assessment

Legislation

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act obliges all federal departments and agencies, including SSHRC, NSERC and CIHR to review proposals for potential impacts on the environment. It recognizes the use of environmental assessment (EA) as an effective means of integrating environmental factors into planning and decision-making processes in a manner that promotes sustainable development.

In order that the federal granting agencies carry out their responsibilities under the Act, the agencies, institutions and researchers must work together to ensure that research activities do not have any significant deleterious effects on the environment. To this end, the partners will ensure that environmental assessments are carried out as required by provincial or federal legislation and that mitigating measures are implemented to limit the adverse impacts of research activities on the environment.

The partners shall keep each other informed of any proposals that might require an environmental assessment under provincial or federal legislation.

Responsibilities

Institutions:

• The Institution agrees to ensure awareness among its research community of EA requirements and procedures;
• At its discretion, the Institution will:
  • Review applications to check for environmental sensitivity and identify any potential liability for the Institution;
  • Assist applicants, where appropriate, in preparing documentation for the environmental assessments; for example, by commissioning reports, validating information contained in proposals, of facilitating access to knowledgeable institutional resources, when these are available. It is understood that in such cases the cost is borne by the applicant or Institution.

Federal Granting Agencies:

Agencies are responsible for:

• developing an EA process that both fully meets the legislative requirements imposed on the Agencies and minimizes the administrative burden on applicants and Institutions;
• using this EA process to review all proposals and determine which are subject to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. An EA may be carried out even on proposals that are not subject to the Act if there is evidence that the proposed research work may have significant negative effects on the environment;
• ensuring that an EA is conducted at the proposal stage and before irrevocable decisions are made;
• ensuring that only proposals that are not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects are funded;
• keeping applicants and Institutions informed in a timely manner of any requirement for an EA, and, where applicable, the progress of an EA in process;
• coordinating, as appropriate, with other jurisdictions such as federal or provincial departments or Aboriginal Band Councils, to avoid any duplication of work;
• determining whether public participation is appropriate and, if so, providing the public an opportunity to comment on the screening report; and, when appropriate, requesting that the Minister of Environment refer the project for a public review through mediation or panel review;
• establishing and maintaining a public registry of assessments conducted under the Act;
• implementing follow-up program to ensure that, where appropriate, suitable mitigation measures and monitoring are put into place;
• ensuring that organizations receiving funds through other mechanisms (for example, by the creation of Network of Centres of Excellence) will have, as part of their Memorandum of Understanding, a process to identify and assess, as required, proposals which have potentially negative environmental effects.