Feds reject majority of amendments to environmental assessment bill

OTTAWA – The federal Liberals will accept nearly 100 changes the Senate has made to a bill overhauling the federal environmental-assessment process for major construction projects but are rejecting dozens more, including nearly all of those proposed by Conservative senators.

Conservative Sen. David Tkachuk said he is “appalled” at the government’s decision.

“If you think Saskatchewan and Alberta are going to take this lying down, I think the country’s got another thing coming,” he said.

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna says she thinks some of the Senate’s proposals made the bill much stronger, including those that reduce the authority of the minister of the environment to interfere with timelines or the make-up of review panels, and some that clarify rules to ensure the same project won’t have to go through both a regional and a national review.

She said she is certain the new review process for national-scale resource and transportation projects, like pipelines, mines and highways, will be clear and timely.

She said it will allow for as many as 100 new resource projects worth $500 billion to be proposed and examined over the next 10 years.

“This is a system that will attract investment,” McKenna said.

“This is a system that Canadians, that Canadian businesses should be proud of. We can go and tell everyone that Canada is open for business.”

McKenna is rejecting 90 per cent of the amendments made by Conservatives, including some which would have allowed a new Impact Assessment Agency to decide not to consider the impacts on Indigenous people or climate change when assessing a project.

She also is rejecting changes that would have put strict limits on who can participate in an assessment hearing, as well as make it harder to challenge a project approval in court.

Environment groups hailed the government’s decision as a win for the planet, ensuring climate change in particular is taken into consideration.

Conservatives, however, are warning their fight against Bill C-69, which they say is a threat to national unity, has barely begun.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is pondering a constitutional challenge, saying the bill infringes on provinces’ rights to control their own natural resources and that it will kill what is left of Alberta’s oil-and-gas sector.

“Without the Senate’s amendments, this bill will drive away more jobs and investment from Canada,” Kenney said.

“It is not too late for the federal government, the House and the Senate to do the right thing and sustain the Senate’s amendments.”

Kenney led six premiers - five conservative provincial leaders and one non-partisan territorial leader – to write to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Monday asking him to accept all the amendments in the name of national unity.