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Category Archives: Class EA-RSFD

ERO-026-0696: Changes to Streamline Natural Resource Permits: Removal of Forest Resources (Trees) for Non-Forestry Activities Proposed addition of the Environmental Protection Act, 1990 to the listed Acts

By Linda Heron on Friday, September 25th, 2026
Posted in Class EA-RSFD, Crown Forest Sustainability Act, Renewable Energy Approvals, Biodiversity, Sustainability, Crown Land Use Policy, Hydroelectric, Aquatic Life, Climate Change, Environmental Registry, River Concerns, Dams, Energy, Rivers at Risk, Fisheries, Forestry, Environmental Assessment Act, Environmental Protection Act, Species at Risk, Water Quality, Forest Management, Lakes & Rivers Improvement Act, Planning Act, Public Lands Act, Renewable Energy on Crown Land, Species at Risk Act

Vermilion River – Our grandchildren’s future with water!

ORA is deeply concerned about where these changes lead when they are taken together. The streamlining of environmental assessment, the spread of permit-by-rule, and the government’s direction to move MNR away from its strengths in protecting public land would leave Ontario’s forests and rivers, and the rich social and economic values they hold, to be decided project by project by proponents whose bottom line is profit. Together, these changes would roll back more than a century of public stewardship and place the health and safety of communities at dire risk.

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ERO-026-0089: Proposing a Project Evaluation Policy that would replace the Class Environmental Assessment for Ministry of Natural Resources Resource Stewardship and Facility Development Projects; ERO-026-0563: Revoking the Class Environmental Assessment for Resource Stewardship and Facility Development Projects

By Linda Heron on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2026
Posted in Sustainability, Class EA-RSFD, Proponent Led Process, Part II Order requests, Environmental Registry, Regulatory, River Concerns, Class EA for Waterpower, Environmental Assessment Act

West Credit River. Photo by Steve Noakes

Three things change, and each one should be stated plainly. First, the requirement would no longer come from an Act of the Legislature. It would come from a policy document written by the ministry that applies it. Second, the other ministry would step out. MECP states that it “would not administer the Class EA-RSFD,” and that “Class EA reviews and annual reports would no longer be required, reducing burden on both ministries.”2 Those annual reports are the record of how MNR has applied the process, and there would be no equivalent under the PEP. Third, MNR could change the policy itself. The proposal states that administrative amendments “could be completed by the MNR,” and that amendments changing the purpose, scope or content of the PEP “may require consultation and posting on the Environmental Registry of Ontario prior to finalization.”1 The word is “may”, not “must”.

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