National Post (National Edition)
Kenney slams project reviews
Brought on by changes to Bill C-69
OTTAWA
Jason Kenney criticized Thursday a recent decision by the federal government to launch environmental reviews of a pair of mining projects, saying it was yet another sign of jurisdictional overreach by Ottawa.
As part of a heated rebuke of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's throne speech on Wednesday, Kenney warned that the Liberal move to subject two coal mines to federal environment assessments was a “canary in the coal mine” that threatens to hamper investments in future natural resource projects.
The premier's comments after years of frustration among some Western leaders over the Liberal government's Impact Assessment Act, which was introduced under Bill C-69. The new law, which came into force last summer, effectively expanded the review process for major projects like oil pipelines, ports and hydro dams.
The legislation was supported by many industry groups, but was strongly opposed by an oil and gas sector that claimed the “no more pipelines bill” would effectively bar any new fossil fuel project from being built.
Those concerns became heightened in recent months, after federal Environment Minster Jonathan Wilkinson subjected two coal mines in B.C. and Alberta to federal reviews. Industry groups, along with Kenney, worry the decision is a signal that Ottawa could be looking to cast a wider net under the Impact Assessment Act, effectively subjecting more projects to rigorous environmental reviews and adding new regulatory burden to an industry already suffering from low commodity prices.
“In the last few months, we have seen the federal government reach into our provincial jurisdiction to create great investor uncertainty by” designating the mines under federal jurisdiction, he said.
“And that is a canary in the coal mine of where they're going to be going in terms of disrupting the Canadian mining industry,” he said.
Wilkinson in July ruled that the Vista Coal Mine expansion project, located near Hinton, Alta., would be subject to federal review, reversing an earlier decision in December 2019 that would have left the assessment project to provincial regulators.
The minister changed his tune after environmental groups pressed for a reversal of the decision, saying in July that the mine would “cause adverse effects within federal jurisdiction.” Both the open-pit mine expansion at Vista, and a separate underground expansion, will now fall under both federal and provincial authority.
Groups calling for the reversal included Vancouver-based advocacy group Ecojustice, which sent a formal request to Wilkinson on May 1 that sought a federal designation for the mine, which is proposed by Coalspur Mine (Operations) Ltd.
Weeks later, Wilkinson then designated for federal review Vancouver-based Teck Resources' proposed Castle project in southern B.C., which would maintain production of metallurgical coal at its existing operations at around 27,000 tonnes per day. Environmental groups, the state of Montana, and others had called for a deeper assessment of the project.
The Teck decision caused an uproar from the Mining Association of Canada (MAC), a longtime supporter of Bill C-69 whose view on the new assessment regime has now soured.
The group said the designation by Wilkinson “completely upends” long-understood criteria for which projects would fall under federal purview. It said it was “extremely disappointed” in what the organization's leader called “arrogance on the part of Ottawa to believe that they always know best.”
The concerns over Castle come after the mining organization also raised alarms over Ottawa's Strategic Assessment of Climate Change (SACC), released earlier this month. The SACC, which is part of the Impact Assessment Act, effectively calls on resource companies to commit to “credible” plans to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 in order to receive approval for proposed projects.
Trudeau has repeatedly claimed that Canada would reach net-zero emissions by 2050 under his environmental policies, and promised in his speech to the throne to “legislate” those goals.
In a letter to Wilkinson on Aug. 7, MAC urged him to reconsider the wording of the SACC, saying it will force companies to propose the adoption of technologies that don't yet exist, or buy carbon offsets in a marketplace that the federal government has not yet established.
Some mining firms now wonder whether any major project can be approved under the “unworkable” new rules, the industry group said.
Officials in the federal environment office reject claims the federal review could slow the application process for mine expansions.
One person who spoke to Financial Post last month, said there were particular concerns about decades of selenium pollution in the Elk Valley region, where the Teck expansion is proposed. Teck in 2017 agreed to pay a $1.7-million fine in connection with selenium pollution at its Line Creek mine near the town of Sparwood, B.C.
Selenium can pollute rivers, lakes and other waterbodies when it appears in high concentrations in mining run-off, which can be deleterious to fish species.
Several other mining projects are also slated to fall under the new assessment regime, including Suncor Energy's Base Mine extension in the oilsands, and the Wasamac Gold Mine Project in Quebec.