Ministry Overview and Core Business Areas

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 significant 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.

The core functions of the Environmental Assessment Office form the basis for fulfilling its mandated responsibilities. The resources for the core business areas are provided on the following page. These core functions are delivered through two business areas:

Major Project Environmental Assessments

The Environmental Assessment Office oversees and manages the province's major project environmental review process to assess environmental, economic, social and other aspects of proposed projects in the following sectors: industrial, mining, energy, water management (dams, dykes, and reservoirs), waste disposal, food processing, transportation and tourism (destination resorts).

Corporate Operations

Many of the Environmental Assessment Office's corporate services are shared with the Ministries of Sustainable Resource Management and Water, Land and Air Protection. Corporate operations that are the responsibility of the Environmental Assessment Office include service planning, budgeting, staff development, policy and legislation, records management, and management of the electronic Project Information Centre and website. Resources for corporate operations are rolled into the core business for the Major Project Environmental Assessment.

The number of reviewable projects has nearly tripled compared to levels expected when the Service Plan and budget were first developed in 2001. The new Act and reforms to streamline the environmental assessment process are providing greater process efficiencies for the Environmental Assessment Office and other provincial agencies. However, even with these greater process efficiencies the Environmental Assessment Office requires additional resources (budget and FTEs) to handle this significant increase in workload. These reforms are also ensuring that British Columbia maintains a fair and balanced process that is competitive with other jurisdictions.

Some of the major projects currently under review include the Richmond Airport Vancouver (RAV) Line, Galore Creek Gold/Silver/Copper Project, Delta Port Third Berth, and the Whistler Nordic Centre. The Environmental Assessment Office has 13 mining projects in the pre-application or application stage of review.