Friends of the West Country Ass. v. Canada ( Minister of Fisheries and Oceans )
T-1893-96
Muldoon J.
7/5/97
22 pp.
Motion brought under R. 1612 to compel respondents to produce documents in their possession-Decisions by officers of Minister of Fisheries and Oceans under Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA), s. 20(1)(a), and Navigable Waters Protection Act (NWPA), s. 5(1)(a) approving screening environmental assessment report re: building of road, two bridges by Sunpine Forest Products Ltd. (Sunpine)-Sunpine logging company proposing to build road to access certain forest areas in Alberta-Applied to Minister for approval under NWPA, s. 5(1)(a) to construct two bridges spanning Ram River, Prairie Creek, both navigable waterways-Attorney General of Canada not party to environmental assessment, therefore not adverse in interest to applicant-Struck as respondent-Minister of Fisheries and Oceans proper party as acting in belief he could delegate assessment, issuance of authorization under NWPA to Canadian Coast Guard-At time of assessment Minister of Fisheries and Oceans not having and presently still not having power to issue approvals under NWPA or delegate authority to issue approvals to Canadian Coast Guard-For purposes of NWPA, Minister issuing authorizations under Act, responsible authority for CEAA Minister of Transport until Bill C-62 enacted-Whether respondents should disclose, certify documents requested by applicant under R. 1612-Applicant must be allowed to make its case-Present case dealing from start to finish with public process-For every assessment of project under CEAA, "public registry" must be maintained pursuant to Act, s. 55-Responsible authority shall maintain public registry for public access, subject to limited exceptions-Registry shall have all documents relevant to proposal-Tests under R. 1612 possession, relevance-Language of CEAA, s. 55 broad, inclusive-All information in respondents' possession concerning Sunpine's projects relevant to specific proposal-Material requested by applicant under R. 1612 relevant, within possession of respondents-Relevancy must be determined after reviewing request in conjunction with grounds of originating notice of motion-Applicant making six requests for documents-Respondents' argument only relevant information considered by tribunal needs to be given to applicant not supported by jurisprudence-Documents sought in Requests no. 1 to no. 5 directly relevant to issue-All such documents related to Sunpine's proposal shall be certified, disclosed-Request no. 6 allowed in so far as documents relate to Sunpine's proposal-Motion allowed-Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, S.C. 1992, c. 37, ss. 20(1)(a), 55-Navigable Waters Protection Act, R.S.C., 1985, c. N-22, s. 5(1)(a)-Federal Court Rules, C.R.C., c. 663, R. 1612 (as enacted by SOR/92-43, s. 19).