The Impact Assessment Act of 2019: Meaningful Participation of Canada’s Indigenous Peoples, or Surface Level Engagement?

Abstract

The aim of this thesis was to research the extent to which the Impact Assessment Act of 2019 achieves its goal of improving Indigenous involvement in the environmental assessment process across Canada.​ It does so by conducting an in-depth SWOT analysis focusing on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats the IAA poses to Indigenous communities.​ The SWOT examined projects that either had Impact Assessments completed, in the process of being completed or denied, as well as media articles discussing said projects.Overall, this thesis demonstrates that the projects that pose the greatest threat to Indigenous participation (and often environmental sustainability) are larger scale projects. However, projects under the IAA are still making significant steps to increase Indigenous participation in environmental impact assessments in Canada.