Navigable Waters Protection Act

Although its application has evolved over the years, the primary purpose of the Navigable Waters Protection Act is protection of the public right of navigation and regulating structures that interfere with navigation such as damns, bridges and piers.   At its core the Act requires approval from Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Canadian Coast Guard before any work is  “built or placed in, on, over, under, through or across any navigable water.” 

 

Navigable waters are not fully defined by the Act, but Coast Guard has adopted a very broad definition for the purposes of administering the Act:

“Navigable Waters include any body of water capable, in its natural state, of being navigated by floating vessels of any description for the purpose of transportation, recreation or commerce; it also includes a canal and any other body of water created or altered for public use, as well as any waterway where the public right of navigation exists by dedication of the waterway for public purposes, or by the public having acquired the right to navigate through long use.”

The Act also contains several anti-pollution provisions such as prohibitions on dumping rubbish in water in a manner that interferes with navigation, and prohibitions on depositing of material that sinks in water that is less than twenty fathoms deep.  These provisions are less relevant given the existence of provincial and federal environmental protection legislation.

NWPA and Environmental Assessment

From an environmental perspective, the NWPA is significant because approvals under the Act trigger the need for an environmental assessment under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.   The NWPA is one of the most frequent triggers of federal environmental assessment. 

 

The utility of the NWPA as a trigger for environmental assessment is somewhat limited by the Canadian Coast Guard’s policy of only giving formal approvals where they determine that a work will have a significant impact on navigation.  In other situations, the Coast Guard conducts what it refers to as work assessment.  The Coast Guard takes the position that work assessments do not trigger an environmental assessment. 

 

Related Guide Pages:

·         Canadian Environmental Assessment Act

 

·         Rivers, Streams and Lakes

 

·         Building Dams

For more information about the Navigable Waters Protection Act:

 

·         Electronic copy of the Navigable Waters Protection Act

 

·         Canadian Coast Guard Pacific Region, Navigable Waters Protection Division.