Although the federal government has a very robust environmental protection regime, it has very limited ability to impose its requirements and practices on any provincial activity, such as the proposed Bradford Bypass.  Canada’s Constitution grants Ontario essentially unfettered jurisdiction to do whatever it wants with the land within its boarders. The only way the federal government can intervene is if the proposed activity impacts something over which it has either sole or shared jurisdiction and the proposed activity impacts a federal statute that requires some form of approval. 

A more fulsome discussion concerning jurisdictional impediments is in our report entitled:

Federal Involvement can only occur where the government has both Constitutional Jurisdiction and political motivation.