NEW! QC: New regulation designed to speed up approvals to reduce delays

The Québec Government has announced the enactment of the Regulation: Respecting the Supervision of Activities Based on their Impact on the Environment (RSABI), which comes into force on December 31, 2020. The government says it made a commitment to speed up environmental approvals without reducing requirements, and this regulation is part of that commitment.

The new regulation is designed to simplify the processes for approving applicants, while providing them with greater clarity and predictability. This new approach, modulated according to the level of environmental risk, makes the proponents of low or negligible risk projects more accountable, without changing the procedure for higher risk projects, including those that must be submitted to the Office of Public Hearings on the Environment (OPHE).

The regulation is supposed to reduce the number of ministerial authorizations to be filed each year by approximately 30%. The Ministry of Sustainable Development, Environment, and Fight Against Climate Change (MSDCC) receives 5,000 applications for authorizations annually for the province. The government says the regulation will allow the ministry to focus more on approving requests for projects with higher environmental risk, which will also help speed up their processing.

The regulation also specifies documents required for the analysis of approval requests, which should result in greater admissibility of approved applications, and consequently, a reduction in delays.

In addition, this regulation introduces the consideration of greenhouse gas emissions in the evaluation of authorization requests for activities likely to generate between 10,000 and 25,000 metric tons of GHGs per year. This measure already applies to the analysis of high-risk projects covered by the Environmental Impact Assessment and Review Procedure (projects submitted to the OPHE).

The regulation is the result of the government’s consultation with close to one hundred groups or associations from the municipal, industrial, mining, agricultural and forestry sectors, environmental groups, Aboriginal communities in Québec, northern advisory committees and government departments. The government says it will continue to consult with stakeholders, particularly agricultural and municipal communities, throughout its implementation.

Indigenous communities will also continue to be consulted on moderate-risk activities likely to have an impact on their rights, known or claimed, and which require an analysis by the MELCC and the issuance of an authorization.

The regulation also provides for public documents to eventually be made available on the Minister's registry for greater transparency, which the government says will allow the public to have better access to information and to be better informed, while ensuring the protection of sensitive information.

In addition to RSABI, 30 other regulations, including the Regulation Respecting the Landfilling and Incineration of Residual Materials, have been enacted by the Québec government. They will either be added to existing regulations or will amend, replace or repeal them, in accordance with RSABI.