First Nations Oil and Gas and Moneys Management Act

Marginal note:Environmental assessment laws

• 63 (1) The Governor in Council may, on the recommendation of the Minister and the Minister of the Environment, make regulations respecting the content of oil and gas laws made in relation to environmental assessments, including

  • (a) the types or stages of environmental assessments, the circumstances in which each type or stage is to be conducted and the required elements of each type or stage;

  • (b) the appointment of persons or bodies that are to carry out each type or stage of assessment and the qualifications of persons appointed to those bodies;

  • (c) the factors to be considered in an assessment in determining whether a project should be recommended to proceed, to proceed with conditions or not to proceed or be referred to another stage of assessment;

  • (d) the powers and duties of decision-making authorities in relation to a project that has been assessed;

  • (e) the powers of persons or bodies referred to in paragraph (b) to compel witnesses to appear before them and give evidence, and to compel the production of documents;

  • (f) the participation of the public in each type or stage of assessment;

  • (g) access by the public to, and the confidentiality of, information that is submitted, collected or generated in an assessment;

  • (h) the immunity from liability of persons or bodies referred to in paragraph (b); and

  • (i) the kinds of exploration activities that are defined as projects for the purposes of assessments.

• Marginal note:Exemptions from assessment

  (2) The Governor in Council may, on the recommendation of the Minister and the Minister of the Environment, make regulations authorizing a first nation in its oil and gas laws to exempt from environmental assessment any class of project that

  • (a) ought not to be assessed, in the opinion of the Governor in Council, for reasons of national security;

  • (b) relates to installations used for oil or gas exploration or exploitation and will, in the opinion of the Governor in Council, have insignificant environmental effects; or

  • (c) has a total cost that is less than an amount prescribed by those regulations and meets environmental conditions prescribed by those regulations.

• Marginal note:Comparable standards

  (3) The requirements of any regulations made under subsection (1) must be generally comparable with those applicable in similar circumstances under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.