Describes the means and methods the proponent will use to consult with the public and other stakeholders and how they will carry out the EIA

Public Consultation

Public, other stakeholder, and Aboriginal consultation is an essential component of this Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

Consultation will continue with persons and organizations potentially or already affected by the options, individuals, interest groups, local governments, other stakeholders and Aboriginal groups/communities will continue to be informed and engaged during the EIA process.

This will include local governments and specific groups with mandates/initiatives encompassing the Petitcodiac River watershed (e.g., Cities, Towns, Villages, and Local Service Districts, the Petitcodiac Watershed Monitoring Group, RiverKeepers, Lake Petitcodiac Preservation Association, Alma Fisherman’s Association, Conservation Council of NB, Fort Folly First Nation, and others).

Appropriate public consultation events will be held and various media used to engage public consultation (e.g., bulletins, study updates, workshops, open-houses, etc). A stakeholder consultation program is to be reviewed and accepted by the Technical Review Committee in the early stages of the study.

Various stakeholders, and Aboriginal communities will be consulted throughout the EIA process, including interested members of the general public, neighbouring residents, non-government organizations, and interest groups. The objectives of this consultation must be:

to ensure that the potentially affected public is engaged in meaningful discussion and is well informed as to the nature and extent of environmental effects attributable to the proposed project options and status quo (i.e., positive and negative effects), prior to any government decision;
to ensure that the values and concerns of the public are incorporated and adequately addressed in the study; and
to obtain expertise (where applicable) from various stakeholders and Aboriginal communities.

At a minimum, the stakeholder consultation program must incorporate the following:

initiatives will be undertaken in all the regions of the watershed (i.e., Headwaters - Petitcodiac, Elgin, Salisbury; Lower river west - Hillsborough, Hopewell, Riverside Albert, Alma; Lower river east - Memramcook, Dorchester, Fort Folly; and mid river - Dieppe, Moncton, and Riverview);
consideration will be given to the issues identified/recommendations made in consultative reports related to the causeway, issued to date (e.g., Niles, 2001; AMEC, 2002; Niles, 2002);
stakeholders, including the public must be informed of the status of the study at regular intervals/at key milestones during the study (the stakeholders will include, but will not be limited to, those stakeholders identified in the Niles Report (2001) and Aboriginal groups/communities);
a dedicated web site for the study will be maintained, to enable all interested parties to be kept up to date on the process, status of the study, and informed of any scheduled consultation initiatives, such as public Open-Houses; and
consultation initiatives (e.g., Open-Houses, information sessions) will be initiated early on in the process (i.e., during the scoping phase) to obtain stakeholder input and feedback. Specific workshops will be held to obtain stakeholder and other input to the Terms of Reference, scoping and Valued Environmental Components (VEC) identification (definitions of significance), cost/benefit analysis (full cost accounting), and approaches to modelling.

The EIA study will document the dates and formats of the public consultation that was undertaken, the material that was presented to the public, the opportunities that were offered for receiving public input, a summary review of the concerns expressed by the public and how these concerns were addressed. It will be clear how the input from consultations was used in the assessment and what changes to the process or project were made as a result of comments provided.

Jacques Paynter - Study Facilitator

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