Culture and Rights Impact Assessment: A Survey of the Field (2017)

Environmental assessment (EA) practitioners have always embraced change, and welcomed new methods and approaches. The constant reinterpretation of guidance on issues of culture and rights in the Canadian regulatory and land use planning contexts highlights the flexible approach taken by practitioners in this area. Innovation in the treatments, methods, and processes for review of culture and rights is perhaps the most challenging and rewarding stretch that practitioners need to embrace.

This report examines a range of EA approaches, from standard practice to community based cultural heritage studies, each with benefits and limitations that must be taken into consideration in the context of each specific cultural, project, and assessment forum.

Prepared by Ginger Gibson and the Firelight Group for Mikisew Cree First Nation.