n November 1990, WCELA lawyers William Andrews and Ann Hillyer prepared a brief on recommendations for improvements to Bill C-78, which was presented to the Legislative Committee examining Bill C-78. In December 1990, WCELA submitted comments on provincial proposals for amendments to Bill C-78 to the Committee.
Bill C-78 died on the Order Paper when Parliament was prorogued and it was replaced in identical terms with Bill C-13 which was given first reading on May 29, 1991. In early October 1991, the federal government tabled with the Legislative Committee examining Bill C-13 a "Consolidated Working Draft of Amendments for Committee Review" which incorporates the government's proposed amendments. This brief comments on and makes recommendations regarding Bill C-13 as it would read with the government's proposed amendments. No attempt is made in this brief to repeat the comments and recommendations made in WCELA's two previous briefs to the Legislative Committee examining Bill C-78. It is our expectation that those briefs will be considered by the Legislative Committee examining Bill C-13 in its clause-by-clause examination of the Bill.
In preparing this brief, we have considered two documents recently released by the Federal Environmental Assessment Review Office: "An Annotated List of Statutory and Regulatory Provisions Under Bill C-13, Revised Draft September 1991," and "Annotated List of Comprehensive Studies: Discussion Draft, September 20, 1991." Recommendations regarding those two documents will be made by WCELA during the federal government's consultation process regarding them.