A new report from Dalhousie University shows flaws in the environmental review process for mining operations in Canada, with researchers finding that data for 20 per cent of the projects they reviewed was incomplete or missing entirely from public records.

The report collected all available environmental impact assessments on mining projects dating back to 1974 — that's 266 assessments on 227 projects over 50 years. However, researchers ran into problems. Some provinces, such as British Columbia, had a fully digitized and accessible system; the records for other jurisdictions were much harder to access or simply not available.

Without complete data from environmental assessments, researchers aren't able to properly judge how a mine is impacting the surrounding community. And regulators c

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