Abstract
Environmental assessment is a key tool for public environmental decision-making in Atlantic Canada. While environmental assessment policies emphasize transparency, public access, and consultation, less attention has been paid to whether the evidence supporting these decisions is documented in ways that allow it to be verified, reused, and relied upon in practice. As a result, transparency of assessment processes does not necessarily translate into transparency of the evidence base itself. Evidence transparency is a foundational condition for credible, defensible decision-making, particularly where decisions may be revisited through monitoring, amendments, or review.
This report evaluates evidence transparency in provincial environmental assessments for hydrogen projects with marine impacts in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador between 2020 and 2025. Using a systematic audit of 1,483 cited sources across seven assessment files, the study examines how transparently evidence is documented by assessing the extent to which assessment documentation aligns with Open Science and the FAIR, CARE and OCAP principles. Evidence was assessed across six categories: accessibility, persistence, licensing and reuse clarity, machine-readability, provenance, and equity and permissions.
While the assessment reports themselves are open to the public, access to the evidence within these reports is inconsistent and often limited. Most citations lacked durable links, persistent identifiers, or clear reuse permissions, making the underlying evidence difficult to locate or verify outside the assessment process. These weaknesses were widespread across projects and jurisdictions, indicating a structural gap rather than isolated failures. These technical and procedural gaps reflect systems that prioritize document submission over evidence stewardship. Small improvements such as clearer citation standards, wider use of persistent identifiers, and documented reuse conditions could strengthen transparency without major regulatory reform, supporting more efficient review, stronger institutional memory, and more durable evidence-based decision-making.
Citation
Keast, E. (2025). An audit of evidence transparency in Atlantic Canada green hydrogen projects with marine impacts. [Unpublished master’s project]. Dalhousie University.
Related Blog Post
Keast, E. (2026, March 24). Open in form, opaque in practice: Analysis of evidence transparency in green hydrogen environmental assessments in Atlantic Canada. EIUI Blog. https://eiui.ca/open-in-form-opaque-in-practice-analysis-of-evidence-transparency-in-green-hydrogen-environmental-assessments-in-atlantic-canada/