The Environment Management
Act gives the Minister of Water, Land and Air
Protection a series of general powers to investigate and respond to
environmental problems. The powers under
the Act are largely discretionary, but are also flexible and can be applied to
a range of environmental problems.
Specifically, the Minister can:
·
require any person doing anything that may have a
negative environmental impact to conduct an environmental impact assessment (section 3). This power predates the more complicated Environmental Assessment Act process.
·
Declare that any persons actions will have a
detrimental impact on the environment (s. 4(1)), and then make any appropriate
interim order (for up to 15 days) restricting or preventing the person from
carrying out those actions or requiring them to do anything the minister orders
in respect of that activity (section 4).
·
Ask the provincial cabinet to make an interim order
permanent or to make an equivalent order to deal with the detrimental impact on
the environment (section 4).
·
Declare an environmental emergency and make such orders
as are necessary to address it (section 5).
·
Hold public inquiries into environmental matters as the
Minister sees fit (section 7).
In addition, once the Minister
has declared that a person’s actions will have a detrimental impact on the
environment, the provincial cabinet may order the Minister to prepare an environmental
management plan to deal with the area that is, or could be, affected by the
environmental impact. That plan can be
adopted by the cabinet (as is, or with modifications) and can order that no
government licences or approvals be granted except in accordance with the
order.
However, these sections of the
Act are rarely used. Other Acts address
many of the problems that the Environment Management Act was designed to
deal with. In addition, most Ministers
who have had these powers seem reluctant to use them for fear of seeming
high-handed.
Other Powers
While the powers of the
Minister are the major focus of the Act, it also creates, and gives powers, to
Conservation Officers and the Environmental Appeal Board. Both are key players in environmental
management in B.C.
Conservation Officers
are the enforcement arm of the Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection. Under the Environment Management Act they
are given the powers to enforce provisions of several acts:
·
The Firearm Act;
·
The Fish Inspection Act;
·
The (provincial) Fisheries Act;
·
The Water Act; and
·
The Wildlife Act.
In addition, the Environment
Management Act creates the Environmental Appeal Board (EAB), a tribunal to
hear appeals from a range of environmental statutes. It provides for how the Board is to be appointed and a regulation
passed under the Act, the Environmental
Appeal Board Procedures Regulation, sets out the procedures that the Board
is to use in its appeals. The actual
powers to hear appeals are given to the EAB in other statutes:
·
The Commercial River-rafting Safety Act;
·
The Health Act;
·
The Pesticide Control Act;
·
The Waste Management Act;
·
The Water Act; and
·
The Wildlife Act.
For more information about the Environment
Management Act:
·
Electronic version of the Environment
Management Act.
·
The Conservation
Officer Service home page on the Ministry
of Water, Land and Air Protection website.
·
The Environmental
Appeal Board website.
