Get Involved

The Government of Canada welcomes and encourages open and transparent discussion with Canadians on applicable projects or impact assessments.

Public participation opportunities - Impact assessment process

To participate in or learn about current federal impact assessment processes conducted under the Impact Assessment Act, visit the Canadian Impact Assessment Registry.

Get involved – Navigation Protection Program (NPP)

The Navigation Protection Program (NPP) is responsible for the administration and enforcement of the Canadian Navigable Waters Act (CNWA).The program receives applications, conducts assessments and issues approvals to construct, place, alter, rebuild, remove or decommission works in navigable waters. To get involved with projects related to the CNWA, you can submit an application or notification for a work, or comment on other proposed projects.

1. Submit your project

The Canadian Navigable Waters Act requires owners of works to follow the applicable process in place, depending on the waterway, location and specific details of their proposed work. To do so, owners or representatives must login on the NPP External Submission Site (ESS) and submit their project:

If you are unsure which process applies to your projects, please consult the Project Review Tool.

2. Comment on other projects

The public may provide comments related to navigation, on proposed projects prior to their construction, placement, alteration, rebuilding, removal or decommissioning. The public notice for works requiring an approval or works on non-scheduled waterways, will provide a specific timeframe allowing for the public to comment on the proposed work. Projects opened for comments can be found on the Common Project Search (CPS). A login is not required to access the information on the CPS. If the public wants to provide comments on projects, they will be redirected to the NPP External Submission Site where a login is required to submit any comment.

The public can comment on any of the following:

Comments on an application for approval are received and reviewed by the NPP. Although these comments will be taken into account during the analysis of the project, the commenter will only be contacted if clarifications are required.

Comments on a notification of work on a non-scheduled waterway will be received directly by the owner of the proposed work. Once comments are received, the commenter and the owner will have 45 days to resolve the concerns. If the comments and/or concerns are not resolved after this period of time, the commenter may request a decision from the NPP to decide if an application for approval needs to be submitted or not.

For additional information, please consult the NPP webpage or contact your regional NPP office.

A work is anything, temporary or permanent, made by humans, that:

  • Is in, on , over, under, through or across any navigable water in Canada; and or
  • Includes dumping, dredging or removing of materials from the bed of a navigable water.