The NB Minister of the Environment has affirmed that an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was not conducted for the 3.5 hectare Corbett Brook Marsh. An EIA should have been triggered for a wetland of that area as mandated by the provisions of N.B.’s Environment Act.
Send letters to the Minister of Environment demanding that environmental laws be followed in this province and an EIA be conducted on the Home Depot development and all other developments affecting the Corbett Marsh.
Send letters to:
Hon. Roland Haché
Minister of Environment
Province of New Brunswick
Marysville Place, Fredericton, NB
Roland.HACHE@gnb.ca
Some points to include in your letters:
* Ministers of the Province of New Brunswick are bound by the provisions of the Clean Water Act and the Clean Environment Act.
*As stated in the Watercourse and Wetland Alteration Regulation – Clean Water Act 10(7) “The issue of a permit under this Regulation does not exempt the person to whom it is issued from the provisions of any Act of the Legislature, the regulations under such Act, any Act of the Parliament of
Canada or the regulations under such Act.”
*The NB Department of Environment has immediate access to the size of the Corbett Brook Marsh through their own Provincial Wetlands Inventory. The Environmental Impact Accessment (EIA) was mandatory for the Home Depot
development but it was never initiated.
*Please refer to the Department of Environment’s website that is explicit about the EIA regulations (www.gnb.ca/0009/0377/0002/0006-e.asp) . As stated in the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulation – Clean Environment Act, “projects that must be registered under EIA Schedule A Undertakings” includes “(v) all enterprises, activities, projects, structures, works or programs affecting
two hectares or more of bog, marsh, swamp or other wetland;”
*Environment Department officials do not have the authority to exempt Corbett Brook Marsh from the EIA process in
accordance with New Brunswick Regulation 87-83 under the Clean Environment Act.
*Regarding the location of a second big box store even closer to the Corbett Brook Marsh than the Home Depot store –such a development should be prohibited or limited so close to this protected ecosystem, a Marsh that is used to teach our children about protection of the environment.
* The Clean Environment Act of NB gives the Minister of the Environment and the Minister of Natural Resources the ability to designate all or any portion of a wetland as a protected area through the issuance of a Wetland Designation Order.
