Notice of Minister of Environment and Climate Change's section 52 decision under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012

June 5, 2024 — Pursuant to subsection 52(1) of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, after taking into account the Environmental Assessment Report and the mitigation measures that he considered appropriate, decided that the Lake Manitoba and Lake St. Martin Outlet Channels Project is likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects on:

• Indigenous Peoples' physical and cultural heritage, including from effects to aspects of intangible cultural heritage, such as sense of place, spiritual connection to the land, and intergenerational knowledge transfer;
• Indigenous Peoples' current use of lands and resources for traditional purposes, including from loss or alteration of access, effects to the availability and quality of resources, and effects to quality of experience; and
• Indigenous Peoples' sites or things of historical, archaeological, paleontological, or architectural significance, including from the loss of sites of importance and lack of mitigations for effects to sites outside the project's footprint.

The Minister must now refer the matter to the Governor in Council who will determine if the significant adverse environmental effects likely to be caused by the project are justified pursuant to subsection 52(4) of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012.

A final decision on the project will be informed by available and relevant scientific information and Indigenous Knowledge provided by Indigenous Peoples involved in the environmental assessment of the project.