Biodiversity Freshwater Natural resource development Peatlands

WCS Canada Comments: Marten Falls Community Access Road Project Environmental Assessment Report/Impact Statement

O'Connor, C., Kirkwood, A. & Ray, J.

Access

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These comments focus on Environmental Assessment Report/Impact Statement for the Marten Falls Community Access Road, one of three proposed road segments that would comprise a Ring of Fire mining access corridor.

Key points

WCS Canada has consistently recommended a more integrated, forward-looking process to move beyond piecemeal project-by-project assessments for proposed developments in the Ring of Fire area in northern Ontario. Here we highlight four key concerns around the Marten Falls Community Access Road project:

1. Insufficient consideration of cumulative effects caused by a region-opening road;
2. Lack of information provided for the impacts of ‘floating road’ construction on peatlands;
3. Insufficient detail in the restoration plan that precludes reasonable assessments of predicted residual and cumulative effects; and
4. Lack of evidence base that offsetting will be adequate to address residual effects.

We recommend that the proponent should:

• Enhance the cumulative effects assessment to include the reasonably foreseeable growth-inducing effects of the project;
• More adequately demonstrate how adverse effects to peatlands and hydrology will be avoided and minimized within the floating road approach, based on further analysis of existing knowledge of floating roads;
• Provide a stronger and more complete basis for characterizing residual effects, including by reducing reliance on incomplete restoration plans in significance determinations; and
• Clearly establish the implications of residual effects for whether offsetting is feasible, appropriate, and capable of credibly addressing the Project’s impacts.

Recommended citation

O'Connor, C., Kirkwood, A. & Ray, J. (2026). WCS Canada Comments: Marten Falls Community Access Road Project Environmental Assessment Report/Impact Statement. Wildlife Conservation Society Canada [WCS Canada]. https://wcscanada.org/resources/wcs-canada-comments-marten-falls-community-access-road-project-environmental-assessment-report-impact-statement/