The City of Burlington is…

The City of Burlington is pleased to comment on the Province’s commitment to modernize the Municipal Class Environmental Assessment Process (MCEA), specifically ERO-019-7891.
The city supports the Province’s commitment to modernize and streamline the EA process. However, given our current understanding of MECP’s proposal, the city has significant concerns that the revised Municipal Project Assessment Process (MPAP) will fail to deliver the results the Province previously announced – to introduce “sensible, practical changes that maintain environmental safeguards while reducing delays on municipal infrastructure projects”.

The City of Burlington is fully supportive of the Municipal Engineers Association comments provided in their correspondence dated January 23, 2026 (also attached). The comments from the MEA can be referred to in combination and included with the City of Burlington’s comments.

The City of Burlington agrees with the MEA and has concerns about the effectiveness of the proposed process to achieve the Province’s goals at a procedural level and at the project level regarding project descriptions. Our key issues are listed below but should not be considered the limit of the city’s concerns.

1. The MECP has proposed changes to the MPAP that will add effort, staff time and cost.
2. MECP is steering the new EA process away from the MCEA process (which includes consultation during consideration and selection of alternatives) and towards a process where the project is presented to stakeholders with a justification (similar to the Planning Act).
3. The AAP being proposed is a more onerous and rigorous process than the previously introduced 2023 Archaeological Screening Process (ASP). The AAP will also be applied to more project types. The AAP, as proposed, could become unworkable as its application may result in significant delays for important municipal projects.
4. Table 1 and 2 Projects proposed to be subject to the Archaeological Assessment Process (AAP) has generated a significant number of questions and concerns (see MEA comments)
5. Table 1 and 2 Private Sector projects subject to MPAP or AAP has generated a significant number of questions and concerns (see MEA comments)
6. Table 1 and 2 Projects proposed to be subject to the MPAP has generated a significant number of questions and concerns (see MEA comments)
7. The city agrees with the MEA in respectfully requesting that the Province establish a group of industry experts and stakeholders to assist in fully vetting the proposed MPAP through a series of progressive workshop style sessions.