Environmental Assessment Office Overview

The Environmental Assessment Office leads reviews of proposed large-scale projects in British Columbia. Environmental assessment is a process for identifying, predicting, evaluating and mitigating potentially adverse impacts of major projects. The process examines a broad range of possible effects — environmental, economic, social, health and heritage — and supports balanced decision-making.

Environmental assessment serves the public interest by:

• ensuring that major projects will not threaten public health/safety or adversely affect local communities and the environment, and by instilling public confidence that this is the case;
• supporting sustainable development that improves the provincial economy;
• forestalling project planning errors which could be costly to both private and public interests;
• protecting British Columbia's reputation for environmental integrity in external markets;
• satisfying public expectations for political accountability for project approval decisions; and
• ensuring that decisions on major projects are linked to government's larger responsibility for the management of provincial land and resources.