Nova Scotia's environment minister said the changes will help speed up project timelines and maintain environmental standards.Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press
Nova Scotia is streamlining the approval process for potential metal mining projects after they passed have through an environmental assessment.
Environment Minister Timothy Halman announced changes Friday to the “industrial approval” process, which sets rules for the daily operations of a mine and the monitoring of environmental requirements.
Mr. Halman told a news conference in Halifax that his government’s new “phased” approach allows applicants to submit some details about their plans after their projects have been approved. For example, a company will be able to submit erosion- and sedimentation-control plans after its project’s approval, but before construction on the mine begins.
Mr. Halman also said his department will create a specialized team to handle all mining files to ensure timely processing of requests.
The minister said the changes will help projects begin more quickly and maintain environmental standards.
“What’s being presented to you today is years and years of listening to companies asking for greater clarity and greater predictability and we’ve delivered that today,” he said.
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The Mining Society of Nova Scotia said in a release the industry welcomes the changes and hopes they will “improve the efficiency of the permitting process.”
However, Karen McKendry, senior wilderness outreach coordinator at the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax, said in an interview Friday that the provincial government hasn’t made needed improvements to transparency in the industrial approval process.
The public can’t view documents related to industrial approval applications until after they’ve been approved, she said.
“All of the details about water monitoring and air monitoring and protecting wildlife are very opaque … There’s no public input.”
In addition, she said, “under the industrial approval process, the details of how a project operates can be changed over and over again without anybody finding out about it.”
She said that while the government is committing to shortening timelines for industry, it has ignored appeals for changes that “serve the environment or the public” by giving citizens more opportunity to comment on potential projects.