Alberta to have say on oilsands review: Redford

Alberta’s premier says it’s still her government’s prerogative to make sure the review process for oilsands projects doesn’t get bogged down by interveners who aren’t directly affected by what’s being proposed.

Alison Redford was responding to a ruling earlier this week by Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Richard Marceau.

Marceau found that the Environment Department bureaucrats contravened their own laws by enacting a shadow policy to stop the Oil Sands Environmental Coalition from speaking to reviews of proposed oilsands operations.

Marceau ruled that, in June 2012, the department used those grounds to reject the coalition’s application for standing in a review of Southern Pacific Resource Corp. oilsands drilling operation south of Fort MacKay.

Redford noted the ruling dealt with one specific intervener.

“It was the position of the government of Alberta that they weren’t directly affected by the project and it was certainly within our prerogative as a government to make that determination and it continues to be in our prerogative as a government,” the premier said in Calgary Friday. Redford noted that legislation has changed since 2012.

Energy Minister Ken Hughes suggested such a situation wouldn’t happen again under the changes.

“Under the new process, at the Alberta Energy Regulator, there will be a clear opportunity for people to say, ‘Hey, I’d like to make my case at the front-end of the process,” Hughes said in Fort McMurray Thursday. “We are in the process of changing all of that ... for people with different perspectives to bring their case forward.”

Under the new process, Hughes’ staff said presenters will still have to make a case to be heard on an application, but they will only have to satisfy the regulator that their input is valuable and will assist the regulator in reaching its decision.

Marceau, in his ruling, pointed to a 2009 briefing note from the department’s northern region director — who was not named in Marceau’s judgment — to the top bureaucrat in the department at the time.

The note said that while the coalition had been given standing in previous oilsands hearings, that should stop.

It said the coalition was no longer assisting the government on environmental initiatives and that one member of the coalition in particular, the Pembina Institute thinktank, was publishing “negative media on the oilsands.”