[6] C-38 eliminates the requirement for the Auditor General of Canada to undertake annual financial audits of certain entities and to assess the performance reports of two agencies.
New "substitution" rules allow Ottawa to download EAs to the provinces; "comprehensive" studies are eliminated.
[7] "This legislation, which required government accountability and results reporting on climate change policies, is being repealed (May 2012).
The bill amends the act to limit fish protection to the support of "commercial, recreational and Aboriginal fisheries."
Protection of fish habitat is relegated to a vastly lower priority — something that caused those four former fisheries ministers, in their words, "especial alarm.
Bill C-38 eliminates $2 million in annual funding to the Experimental Lakes Area in northwestern Ontario.
John Smol, a biologist at Queen’s University, has said that the Experimental Lakes Area is the best-known freshwater research facility on the planet.
Along with his team, they spent 15 years studying "the increasing levels of toxins in oceans and in animals like the killer whale.
"[7] The Species at Risk Act (SARA) "is being amended to exempt the National Energy Board from having to impose conditions to protect critical habitat on projects it approves.
"[7] The David Suzuki Foundation argued that,[10] Bill C-38 removes the time limitations on permits and agreements allowing activities that affect species at risk or their habitat (previously restricted to three and five years, respectively).
"[7] The Coasting Trade Act was changed to promote seismic testing allowing increased off-shore drilling (May 2012).
"[7] Environment Canada's Environmental Effects Monitoring Program, a "systematic method for measuring the quality of effluent discharge, including from mines and pulp mills, will be cut by 20 percent (May 2012).