Federal
- Loi sur l’évaluation d’impact
- évaluation d’impact
Environmental impact assessment in Canada: which documents must be in English and French.
Under the Impact Assessment Act's regulations and the Agency's guidelines, the proponent supplies plain-language summaries in English and French of the initial and detailed project descriptions and of the impact statement. The rules we read do not require the full studies in both languages. What must stay consistent is the terms, through years of follow-up reports.
What is an environmental impact assessment in Canada?
A review of a project’s effects before it goes ahead. Federally, designated projects are assessed under the Impact Assessment Act, by the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada. Provinces run their own procedures; in Quebec, the environment ministry’s procedure applies, with separate regimes in the James Bay and northern regions.
A large project can fall under both, and then two procedures, two sets of documents and two languages can run side by side.
Which assessment documents must be in English and French?
Federally, only the proponent’s summaries. The proponent’s initial project description must include a plain-language summary of its contents in English and in French (time limits regulations, Schedule 1, item 25), and so must the detailed project description. The Agency’s guidelines add a stand-alone plain-language summary of the impact statement in both languages. The rules we read do not require the full descriptions or the impact statement in both languages.
The Agency itself, as a federal institution, publishes its notices, reports and Registry services in both languages. Outside information, such as public comments, is available in the language it was submitted in.
Which documents, which languages
- Plain-language summary of the initial project descriptionYes, both languages.Regulations, Schedule 1, item 25
- Plain-language summary of the detailed project descriptionYes, both languages.Regulations, Schedule 2, item 25
- Plain-language summary of the impact statementYes, a stand-alone summary in both languages.The Agency's generic guidelines
- The project descriptions and the impact statement themselvesNo requirement found.Regulations; guidelines
- The Agency's own notices, reports and Registry servicesYes, as a federal institution.Official Languages Act; Registry FAQ
- Public comments and other outside documentsNo: available in the language submitted.Registry FAQ
ENFRBoth languagesENFRAs submittedENFRNo requirement found
This sets out what the texts say, as read in November 2026; it is not legal advice, and each project’s own guidelines govern each project. For the wider federal rules, see our guide to official languages on federal projects.
What does the Impact Assessment Act require at each phase?
The proponent writes; the Agency posts. The proponent provides an initial description of the project, which the Agency posts on its Internet site. The Agency then gives the proponent a summary of the issues and posts it; the proponent answers with a detailed description. If an assessment goes ahead, the Agency posts a notice of commencement and the proponent prepares the impact statement against tailored guidelines.
Each of those steps puts a document on the public Registry, and the project file stays open until any follow-up program ends. For a proponent, that means the plain-language summaries are written several times, and each should use the same words as the last.
The proponent writes
The Agency posts
01Initial project description02Posts it03Summary of the issues, posted04Detailed project description05Notice that the assessment goes ahead06Impact statement, against tailored guidelines07Registry file open until follow-up endsHow does Quebec's environmental assessment work?
Southern Quebec, current procedure
- 1Notice of project
- 2Minister's directive on the impact study
- 3Impact study
- 4Notice in the public registry
- 530-day public information period
↳ Consultation or mediation may be requested
New procedure from December 1, 2026
In southern Quebec, the procedure runs from a notice of project, through the minister’s directive on the content of the impact study, to the impact study itself, a notice in the public registry of environmental assessments and a 30-day public information period, during which a public consultation or mediation may be requested. A new procedure takes effect on December 1, 2026; check which applies to your project (read November 2026).
The James Bay and northern regions have their own regimes under the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, and a project there may answer to both federal and provincial conditions.
Évaluation d'impact or évaluation environnementale: which term?
Quebec
- procédure d’évaluation et d’examen des impacts sur l’environnement
- étude d’impact
- évaluation environnementale
It depends on the procedure. The federal Act is, in French, the Loi sur l’évaluation d’impact, and its process is an évaluation d’impact. Quebec’s procedure is the procédure d’évaluation et d’examen des impacts sur l’environnement, and its central document is the étude d’impact. Évaluation environnementale is Quebec’s usage, and the name of the former federal Act (Loi canadienne sur l’évaluation environnementale). A French text that mixes them signals a translation that did not know which procedure it was in.
Which terms must stay the same through the assessment?
All of them that recur, and an assessment recurs for years. Monitoring reports for a mine in northern Quebec, translated from French to English, ran to 14 projects over two field years in eight specialties: the same stations, instruments and parameters came back year after year. A station or an instrument named two ways in two reports reads as two different things.
190k
Words of follow-up
14
Projects
71,658
Harbour studies
400+
Pages
The same discipline applies to the regulators’ own names. On environmental and technical studies for two Arctic harbours, the regulators’ names were rendered in their official French, and the abbreviations rebuilt in French, so that a French reader could find each body as it names itself. See the Nunavut harbours case study and our environmental translation page. A transit supplier’s safety files call for the same care: see FMECA translation for a transit system’s documents, and all our engineering translation services.
At the start, and at each posting
When should translation be planned in an assessment?
At the start, and at each posting. A few points make the difference:
- Write the English and French plain-language summaries together, from one set of terms.
- Fix the names of sites, stations, species and components before the first posting.
- Render regulators and agencies by their official names in each language.
- Keep the follow-up reports in the same term base as the impact statement.
Common questions
Does the impact statement have to be translated in full?
Federally, the Agency’s guidelines call for a stand-alone plain-language summary of the impact statement in English and French; the rules we read do not require the impact statement itself in both languages. Each project’s tailored guidelines govern each project.
Is the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada bilingual?
Yes. As a federal institution, it publishes its own notices, reports and Registry services in both official languages. Public comments and other outside documents are available in the language submitted.
What is the difference between évaluation d’impact and évaluation environnementale?
Évaluation d’impact is the federal process under the Loi sur l’évaluation d’impact. Quebec’s procedure centres on the étude d’impact, and évaluation environnementale is Quebec’s usage and the name of the former federal Act. A French text should follow the procedure it belongs to.
Do follow-up and monitoring reports need the same terms?
Yes. A program can run for years, and a station or an instrument named two ways in two reports reads as two different things. Keep them in one term base.
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