Regulation and Compliance

The regulation component of the CEAM Framework encompasses a broad spectrum of activities such as the issuance of resource rights (e.g., for minerals, oil and gas, and forestry), land-use permits, water licences and harvest quotas. Regulatory processes apply to all significant projects and activities in the NWT, including those that are not subject to detailed review through EIA. Cumulative effects management depends on the capacity within the regulatory regime to establish and enforce general regulatory requirements and specific conditions of approval. These regulatory instruments can be used to control the extent to which individual projects and activities contribute to cumulative environmental effects.

The NWT has a full suite of regulatory agencies, but many of their decision-making processes and environmental management systems are relatively new and untested. The Steering Committee recognizes that CEAM constitutes a challenge for agencies that are, in some cases, already hard pressed to carry out other aspects of their mandates. Strengthening the components of the CEAM Framework and improving the linkages among them will assist these agencies in several ways. Land use planning, baseline studies and monitoring, research, the audit and reporting functions, and improved information management can all increase the ability of regulators to address cumulative effects. A fully functioning CEAM Framework should also reduce the burden on regulators by shifting the focus somewhat from the assessment and management of cumulative effects to the proactive policy and planning measures that can prevent these effects from occurring in the first place. Finally, the Steering Committee believes that consistent implementation of the CEAM Framework could correct the discrepancies among the regulatory standards that are currently applied to industry, government and municipalities in the NWT. Management of cumulative effects will be undermined if regulators do not hold government and municipalities to the same high standards that are now applied to industry.

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