Evaluating the effectiveness of British Columbiaʹs environmental assessment process for first nationsʹ participation in mining development

This paper applies effectiveness as a criterion to measure the participation of First Nationsʹ participation in British Columbiaʹs environmental assessment process. Effectiveness is reviewed as a means to measure policy implementation and an expanded framework is proposed to measure effectiveness. The framework is applied to three case studies in north-central British Columbia to measure the effectiveness of First Nationsʹ participation in the EA process for mining development. All three cases failed to achieve procedural, substantive, and transactive efficacy and thereby failed to meet overall policy effectiveness. The policies used by the British Columbia government, including the relatively recent Environmental Assessment Act (1995), reflect a poor integration of First Nations people in the EA decision-making process with respect to mine development.