SERVICE
Certificate of Authorization
Article 22 of the Environmental Quality Act (EQA) states that one must obtain a certificate of authorization prior to the completion of any work or activity with the potential to impact the environment. Any project, activity or work subject to this Act requires a request for authorization from the MELCC.
Article 22, section IV, of EQA states:
“No one may erect or alter a structure, undertake to operate an industry, carry on an activity or use an industrial process or increase the production of any goods or services if it seems likely that this will result in an emission, deposit, issuance or discharge of contaminants into the environment or a change in the quality of the environment, unless he first obtains from the Minister a certificate of authorization.
However, no one may erect or alter any structure, carry out any works or projects, undertake to operate any industry, carry on any activity or use any industrial process or increase the production of any goods or services in a constant or intermittent watercourse, a lake, pond, marsh, swamp or bog, unless he first obtains a certificate of authorization from the Minister.
The application for authorization must include the plans and specifications of the structure or project to use the industrial process, operate the industry or increase production and must contain a description of the apparatus or activity contemplated, indicate its precise location and include a detailed evaluation in accordance with the regulations of the Government of the quantity or concentration of contaminants expected to be emitted, deposited, issued or discharged into the environment through the proposed activity.
The Minister may also require from the applicant any supplementary information, research or assessment statement he may consider necessary to understand the impact the project will have on the environment and to decide on its acceptability, unless the project has already been the subject of a certificate of authorization issued under section 31.5, 31.6, 134 or 189, of an authorization issued under section 167 or 203 or of a certificate of exemption from the assessment and review procedure issued under section 154 or 189″.
Regulatory requirements for an application of autorization
- Identification of the applicant: individual or corporation, partnerships, associations, municipality.
- Project location: legal description, zoning, site plan.
- Nature of project: technical caractéristics
- Potential consequences of the project: description, volume and points of contaminant emissions, released or deposited into the environment.
- Additional documentation: municipal authorization
