Project planning: Application form tips

This is a quick guide to help you fill out the Fisheries and Oceans Canada's (DFO's) application for authorization form, which will facilitate the review process. More extensive guidance is available in the Applicant's Guide Supporting the Authorizations Concerning Fish and Fish Habitat Protection Regulations.

The Authorizations Concerning Fish and Fish Habitat Protection Regulations outline the information required to apply for an authorization under the Fisheries Act.

A Fisheries Act authorization is needed when a project is likely to result in the death of fish or the harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat.

The Authorizations Concerning Fish and Fish Habitat Protection Regulations also set out the time limits for processing applications.

On this page

• Contact information
• Financial guarantee
• Project description
• Phases and schedule of the project
• Location
• Indigenous engagement and consultations
• Engagement with interested parties
• Description of fish and fish habitat
• Description of effects on fish and fish habitat
• Project-specific avoidance and mitigation measures
• Habitat credits
• Offsetting plan
• Fisheries management objectives
• Other available information

Contact information

As an applicant (also known as proponent), you must provide:

• your full legal name
• your primary mailing address
• a valid email address
• your signature on the application

If relevant, provide the name of a representative and their role in relation to the application (such as a consultant).

When the applicant is a company, you must provide the full legal registered name of the company and the company's representative.

The same contact should sign the financial guarantee.

Financial guarantee

For your application to be considered complete, you need a financial guarantee. The amount is determined by the cost estimates in your offsetting plan.

See Annex A of the applicant's guide for a letter of credit template.

Description of proposed project (also called a work, undertaking or activity)

Provide details about your project, including information about each phase of its completion. For example, details about:

• construction
• operation
• maintenance
• closure

We recommend that an accredited engineer stamp and approve engineering specifications.

Your project description should include:

• construction methods being used
• associated infrastructure affected
• permanent and temporary structures affected
• building materials, machinery and equipment being used
• technical drawings
• specifications and footprint of affected physical structures
• estimated largest footprint of disturbed area in or around water associated with the project

You must also provide information on these activities, and equipment and materials used.

Phases and schedule of the project

Provide a clear schedule that identifies the proposed start and end dates for each proposed project and, when applicable, each phase of the project.

More information frequently needed includes details about:

• demobilization
  • for example, removal of equipment and materials from a project site
• stabilization plans
  • for example, for multi-year projects when work is paused between seasons
• timing windows
  • for example, seasonal migration, spawning times, etc.
• timelines and sequencing of your project phases in relation to timing windows
• expected life span of permanent and temporary structures

Location

Needed location information includes:

• geographic coordinates of the proposed project
• small-scale site plan showing the overall location of the project
• large-scale site plan or diagrams indicating the high-water mark or tide levels and existing structures
  • in a marine setting, this would be the location of the site on a nautical chart
• photographs from different vantage points or satellite imagery of the water sources and water bodies, if available
• names of any watershed, water source and/or water body likely to be affected
• name of the nearest community

Indigenous engagement and consultations

Engaging early with Indigenous Peoples is an opportunity for you to understand how your project may impact Aboriginal and treaty rights, and to address these impacts early in the design process. In most cases, proponent-led engagement will speed up the review process.

If applicable, your application should include:

• overview of engagement and consultations conducted with Indigenous Peoples
• summary of their concerns and how you plan to accommodate them in your project design

DFO must consult with Indigenous Peoples as part of the application for authorization review process and will use the results of that consultation in its decision-making process.

Engagement with interested parties

If any engagement was done with interested parties or the public at large, your application should include:

• summary of concerns raised
• how they influenced your project design

Description of fish and fish habitat

DFO requires detailed information about fish and fish habitat that could be impacted by your project. This information includes:

• type of water body
  • for example, river, lake, marine, estuary
• geographic setting and geomorphological conditions in the project area
  • for example:
    • channel characteristics
    • presence or absence of floodplain or disturbance indicators
    • meander belt width and /or bankfull conditions, high water mark
    • water chemistry, flow, depth and/or fetch
    • presence or absence of cover (for example, undercut banks, wood) during different seasonal conditions throughout the project
• characteristics of the fish habitat and how those characteristics directly or indirectly support fish in their life processes
• including:
  • substrate characterization
    • for example, bedrock, boulder, cobble, gravel or other materials
  • aquatic and/or riparian vegetation characterization
    • for example, aquatic vegetation may be rooted, submerged, emergent, have a different density and varied species composition (such as 80% grass, 10% cattails, 10% sedge)
    • map of the substrate and a description of the predominant vegetation and substrate types (for example, 80% cobble, 20% gravel)
• information about:
  • spawning grounds and nursery
  • rearing
  • food supply
  • migration areas
  • habitat type
    • for example, spawning habitat:
      • gravel and cobble
      • feeding areas
      • pupping or rearing areas
      • side channel slough
      • small tributaries
      • ice floes
• other information about water quality and the biological community that would help with understanding the fish habitat
• identification of fish species known or suspected to be in the area and the life stages potentially affected by the proposed project, including information on any aquatic species at risk listed under the Species at Risk Act, including their critical habitat
• information on invasive plant or fish species listed under the Aquatic Invasive Species Regulations
• all sources of information (including pictures), and the sampling and modelling techniques used

Description of effects on fish and fish habitat

For each proposed project, the following information about possible effects on fish and fish habitat is needed to assess your authorization request:

• identification of fish species and life stages potentially affected
• identification of the type and size (area) of potentially affected fish habitat
• description of the potential effects, including:
  • direct mortality to fish and injury to fish
  • habitat loss
  • reduced reproductive success
  • change to fish passage
  • risk of fish entrapment
  • reduced feeding availability
  • effects of obstructions or encroachment into water bodies
• probability or likelihood of the potential effect occurring and the magnitude
  • for example, low probability, high magnitude
• spatial extent and duration of the potential effects
  • for example, temporary or permanent

DFO has developed 9 Pathways of Effects diagrams that represent the most common risks caused by projects. These pathways help identify stressors, which lead to effects in the aquatic environment. Descriptions of effects may include:

• anticipated number or percentage of dead fish
• number of square metres of altered fish habitat
• number of square metres of degraded spawning habitat for a specific species
• impacts to water flow, downstream habitat and fish passage, and/or connectivity

Project-specific avoidance and mitigation measures

Please consult the Projects Near Water website for:

• Measures to protect fish and fish habitat
• Standards
• Codes of practice

Your application must include detailed information about measures and standards being used to avoid and mitigate the effects of your specific project. Include information on:

• how avoidance measures and standards were considered and applied first to avoid death of fish, and to avoid or mitigate the harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat
• the monitoring measures that will be used to assess expected outcomes and effectiveness of the applied measures and standards
• contingency measures that will be used if the proposed measures and standards do not meet their goals

The following information will help DFO make an informed decision about your application:

• monitoring indicators your project will use, for example:
  • physical habitat
  • vegetation
  • invertebrates
  • fish abundance
  • fish community composition
• rationale for the selected monitoring method or techniques, for example:
  • before-and-after design
  • spatial sampling
  • multi-year sampling
• justification for the choice of monitoring method or techniques
• the dates for submitting the monitoring reports

Habitat credits

You may withdraw certified credits from your existing DFO-approved fish habitat bank to offset the death of fish or the harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat resulting from the proposed project.

The terms and conditions of a habitat bank are predetermined in a bilateral arrangement between the proponent and DFO.

Offsetting plan

Offsetting counterbalances harm to fish and fish habitat that cannot first be avoided or mitigated.

Your application must include a detailed offsetting plan with the following components:

• geographic coordinates of the location where offsetting measures will be done
• small-scale site plan identifying the general location and its boundaries
• detailed description of:
  • offsetting measures
  • how those measures will meet their objectives
  • how the effectiveness of the proposed measures (timing, endpoints, etc.) will be monitored
• detailed description of the contingency measures and related monitoring measures you will do if the proposed offsetting measures do not meet their objectives
• detailed description of any adverse effects on fish and fish habitat that could result from doing the plan, and a detailed description of the measures and standards that will be done to avoid or mitigate the adverse effects
• timeline to do the offsetting plan and an estimate of its cost
• description of the steps to get the authorization needed to access the areas in question if implementing the plan requires access to areas the applicant does not own

These resources can help you prepare your offsetting plan:

• Project planning: What is offsetting and how to prepare an offsetting plan summarizes DFO's approach to offsetting for potential negative effects to fish and fish habitat
• Policy for applying measures to offset harmful impacts to fish and fish habitat provides comprehensive guidance on offsetting

Fisheries management objectives

Although not a regulatory requirement, submitting information on fisheries management objectives, where they exist, may speed up DFO's review.

Fisheries management objectives are the stated socio-economic, biological and ecological goals for a fishery. They are typically established by federal, provincial or territorial fishery managers in consultation with Indigenous groups and other interested parties. DFO considers these objectives, among other information, when issuing its authorization. A current list of DFO's fisheries management plans includes specific fisheries management objectives.

There may also be fisheries management objectives established by:

• Parks Canada
• provincial or territorial governments
• multi-jurisdictional co-management agreements

If your planned work is in an area where objectives have been established, identify any effects that the proposed project and/or offsetting plan may have on the fisheries management objectives.

Other available information

Any other information you can provide about your project and its potential effects will help DFO review your application quickly. This information could include, for example, the results of an impact assessment, where applicable.

References

• A Review of Equivalency in Offsetting Policies
• Equivalency metrics for the determination of offset requirements for the Fisheries Protection Program
• Science Advice on the Determination of Offset Requirements for the Fisheries Protection Program
• Assessing the Effectiveness of Habitat Offset Activities in Canada: Monitoring Design and Metrics
• Science advice on operational guidance on functional monitoring: Surrogate metrics of fish productivity to assess the effectiveness of mitigation and offsetting measures