Critique
Overall Project Background & Scope Critique
While BHP was able to create a fairly large and extensive EIS which covered a variety of factors and issues associated with the project, there were nevertheless some components that were missing or lacked evidence. One of the biggest issues that arose in this EIS is that it lacked resolve in committing to partnerships with Indigenous stakeholders, while many promises were made there were few concrete plans as to how BHP would work with and communicate with First Nations groups. As a result, many of the promises made seem empty and negligible. Moving forward, we recommend that the proponent include specific strategies as to how they plan on working with local communities before, during, and after the Project.
Strengths
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Clarity
The EIS was understandable despite being extensive. The use of figures and tables was very effective in increasing reader's understanding of complex issues.
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Organization
The EIS was well organized and utilized appropriate headings and sub-headings. The report was easy to navigate.
Depth
An in-depth description of each VEC was given and reasoning was provided as to why, or why not, a component was selected as a VEC.
Weaknesses
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Indigenous Partners
The Proponent did not outline how they would engage with Indigenous partners nor did they provide any evidence of already having reached out (e.g communication logs).
CEA
The cumulative effects assessment only considered existing production facilities and future exploratory drilling, it did not take into account future production facilities.
Temporal Boundary
While the spatial boundaries were defined they were very little information given about temporal boundaries aside from project dates. Timelines for post-project monitoring were not provided.
Climate Change
Little to no mention was given to climate change and how it would either affect the project or compound other factors/effects.
Spill Plans
BHP did not detail how they would create spill contingency plans with the local community and Indigenous groups. There was also no mention of how or even if these plans would be communicated to them.
Project Personnel
In the project personnel section (2.5), there was no mention of employing Indigenous peoples within the technical evaluation teams, and monitoring groups were not included in any key Project teams.