Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations
VICTORIA – The provincial government has taken further steps to streamline compliance and enforcement activities within British Columbia's natural resource sector.
Effective immediately, administrative changes to the way that the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations' Compliance and Enforcement Branch works with the Environmental Assessment Office will increase co-operation between the two agencies and allow the ministry's Natural Resource Officers to more easily conduct site inspections and investigations.
"This change is part of an ongoing effort to more closely align legislation and the work that various government agencies do to regulate activity in the natural resource sector,” said Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Steve Thomson. “It is another example of how my ministry is streamlining procedures to give our staff increased flexibility to do their jobs more effectively."
Specifically, the Compliance and Enforcement Branch's Natural Resource Officers are now authorized to enter and inspect any development project that is subject to review under the Environmental Assessment Act.
By authorizing inspections of reviewable projects by either Natural Resource Officers or Environmental Assessment Office compliance and enforcement staff, the move gives staff more operational flexibility, uses government resources more effectively, and provides for continuation of the existing harmonization of compliance and enforcement across the natural resource sector.