Notley slams feds over plan to revamp regulatory process
CALGARY In a dramatic change in tone, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley on Tuesday publicly blasted the federal government’s bill to overhaul the regulatory process for natural resource projects.
The premier has long been aligned with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals on energy and environmental issues, including carbon taxes and encouraging more renewable energy.
But in front of 1,500 people at the International Pipeline Conference, Notley took shots at Bill C-69, which would reorganize the arm’s-length National Energy Board into the Canadian Energy Regulator and establish a new Canadian Impact Assessment Agency for resource project reviews.
“We need to stop the regulatory merry-go-round, not supercharge it,” she said, adding the bill could result in longer regulatory timelines for pipelines and other resource projects instead of shorter reviews.
“In its current form, Bill C-69 hurts Alberta,” she said, adding the province views aspects of the bill as a federal overreach into provincial jurisdiction.
“I’m not quite ready to file a statement of claim yet,” she said when asked if Alberta was ready to challenge the bill in court.
Canadian Energy Pipelines Association president and CEO Chris Bloomer echoed the view. “We’ve said from the outset that this bill does not secure the type of certainty the government was trying to achieve.”
Over the past several months, various Alberta ministers have written letters to their federal counterparts raising concerns over Bill C-69. The premier’s speech Tuesday marks the first time those concerns have been aired directly as Notley is demanding changes — including that the federal government exclude consideration of downstream emissions from pipeline project reviews — in the bill.