Environmental Assessment

Environmental impact assessment processes are complex, time consuming and process-heavy. Expert support is often critical for Indigenous Nations who want to protect their rights, and the lands, waters, and natural resources they rely upon.

Connect with Us

What We Do

We help Indigenous Nations to navigate complex environmental impact assessment and regulatory processes by providing strategic advice, process support and third party technical review. We work with leadership, land managers and community members to assess impacts on the Nation's rights and interests and to identify meaningful mitigation and follow up measures.

Experience

Our team has decades of experience in federal, provincial and territorial environmental impact assessment and regulatory processes across Canada. We have worked on major projects assessments for mining, road building, hydroelectricity, and oil and gas development, among other sectors.

Training

We provide training on federal and provincial environmental impact assessment processes to help Indigenous and local governments understand how they can more effectively participate, effect change, and protect their rights and interests.

Contact

Amy Wilson - Environmental Assessment Program Manager

MSc Environmental Sociology and Rural Economics

Edmonton Office

Email: amy.wilson@firelight.ca Phone: (587) 545-1290

”Indigenous Nations are at a disadvantage during formal environmental impact assessment and regulatory processes. They are highly technical and bureaucratic; they focus on scientific knowledge at the expense of traditional ways of knowing; and timelines are increasingly rapid… Firelight provides support to remove or reduce these barriers, to allow Nations to tell their own, often very different story of change, benefits, and risks.”

Alistair MacDonald

Environmental Impact Assessment Team Lead

Example Projects

Okanagan Nation Rights and Interests

Okanagan Nation Alliance Title, Rights and Interests Submission to the Revelstoke Generating Station Unit 6 Project Environmental Assessment Certificate Application

The Firelight Group worked with the Okanagan Indian Band, Westbank First Nation and Penticton Indian Band to document the Okanagan Nations’ Rights and Interests with respect to BC Hydro’s proposed Revelstoke 6 project. Using community-identified valued components and a temporal scale that includes past impacts and changes to Okanagan people, their way of life and their territory, this study uses a cumulative-effects lens to holistically assess project effects on the rights and interests of the Okanagan Nation.

Download