Premiers push Ottawa for changes to environmental assessment bill

By Holly Lake
iPolitics

Why would the federal government spend $4.5 billion to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline and continue to push legislation that will stand in the way of getting a good many energy projects off the ground?

That was the question Alberta Premier Rachel Notley put to senators Thursday morning at the Standing Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources as part of their study of Bill C-69.

“It just leaves us shaking our heads,” she said.

The proposed legislation would overhaul the federal environmental assessment process by broadening investigations into proposed projects to include assessment of environmental and economic impacts, as well as consulting Indigenous groups more.

It would also replace the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency with a new watchdog called the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, and would give the federal environment minister the power to veto a proposed project before an assessment even starts.

The bill as written does not work for Alberta, “and, therefore, it does not work for Canada,” Notley said.

That’s not to say the Environmental Assessment Act introduced by the previous Conservative government was any better. She said it was “broken, misguided and damaging to our economy,” and agreed the process for approving infrastructure projects needs to change.

“The old way of doing things is not an option. Senators, we have to get this right. We can’t just swap one broken system for another broken system. We can’t build trust with more investor uncertainty,” she said.
“We can’t replace a “no pipeline” process under the former Conservative government with a “no pipeline” process under a Liberal one. But either by design, by willful ignorance, or maybe just by accident, that’s just what Bill C-69 does.”

Notley said there isn’t a school, hospital, road or bike lane in Canada that doesn’t owe something to a strong energy industry, but stressed Alberta can’t keep contributing what it does to the Canadian economy, build new renewable energy or lead on climate change if Ottawa makes it virtually impossible to build the energy infrastructure the province needs.

Last fall’s economic crisis was because the province ran out of pipeline capacity, she noted, which saw the value of its oil drop by about 20 per cent of what it could have fetched on the world market. In response, her government curtailed production by 10 per cent.

“In the Maritimes they were importing Saudi oil. Here in Ontario you were importing American oil. And in the West, we were curtailing production. This, my friends, does not a country make,” the premier said.
Notley came with a list of amendments she asked senators to consider as a package. Among them are harder limits on the time it can take to do a review, and ensuring assessments consider the socio-economic benefits of a project.

She also wants to see Alberta’s Climate Leadership Plan formally recognized so that projects approved under it would meet federal standards and be exempt from further assessment, unless there were significant impacts in other areas of federal jurisdiction.

Notley also requested that the act be amended to exclude downstream greenhouse gas emissions.
Bringing a perspective from the other end of the country, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Dwight Ball said while his government is concerned the proposed legislation will increase regulatory burden, costs and timelines, without enhancing environmental outcomes, the status quo doesn’t sit well with them either.

“Improvements to Bill C-69 must create a responsible but also internationally competitive regulatory environment that can support our Government’s efforts to meet ambitious targets for economic growth in our resource sector.”

He noted that sector contributed 25 per cent of Newfoundland and Labrador’s GDP in 2016 and the equivalent of nearly 18,000 person years of employment last year, and said given the economic and demographic challenges the province is facing, the need to be able to sustainably develop its natural resources “is perhaps greater now than ever before.”

His Liberal government has announced plans to double offshore oil production by 2030, which set a target of 100 new exploration wells.

The province is “on the verge of a new era in frontier oil exploration and development,” and key to unlocking that potential offshore rests with exploration wells. Ball said exploration shouldn’t be subject to impact assessment, as the process of going before a review panel could take 870 days — while the work itself might only last a couple of months.

Under the current Environmental Assessment Act, the process averages 2.5 years. The proposed Impact Assessment Act (IAA) creates a process that is three years, or longer, for every project, said Siobhan Coady, the province’s minister of natural resources.

While Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore has caught the eye of the global industry, investors are concerned about putting money on the table because Canada’s environmental regulatory system already lags far behind countries like the UK and Norway, Ball said, noting both move exploratory well drilling through assessment in a matter of months.

“We keep saying investment is slowing down and it’s slowing down simply because of the uncertainty that’s created around the discussions we’re having around this new legislation,” he told iPolitics.

“It’s not about moving away from environmental concerns. We believe we have to do that responsibly. But we also know this creates jobs for people in Newfoundland and Labrador, and it contributes quite heavily to all of Canada.”

Balancing environmental protection with resource development is an “indispensable economic imperative,” and should be the focus of amendments to Bill C-69, he told senators.

As written, the bill would allow the federal environment minister to veto a proposed project. That’s concerning, Coady said, as it doesn’t respect the principles of joint management and shared jurisdiction for the offshore that are entrenched in the Atlantic Accord.

“We believe the federal minister should be required to consult the provincial minister on matters that have potentially significant impacts on our offshore.”

Like Alberta, he called for regional environmental assessments to be recognized to avoid delays and duplication. Further to that, the province wants the role of the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) — the regulator created as part of the Accord — clarified and enshrined in the bill. Before the Conservatives introduced their assessment legislation in 2012, the board was responsible for performing all environmental assessments for the offshore.

“They have expertise in all areas of offshore oil and gas operations and are responsible for all other operational approvals in the offshore area. To not fully use their expertise would undermine the purpose of the IAA, which is to perform more effective and efficient impact assessments,” Coady said.

Later, Ball told iPolitics: “In our province we’ve been doing this for nearly 30 years now. We’ve been doing it successfully. When it comes down to answering the question of who the responsible authority would be, it’s very clear to us that within our legislation it should be the C-NLOPB, so we want that stated right in the act itself.”

However, there are plenty of people in the province who have long felt the board already has too much power and needs better oversight itself. A spill off Newfoundland’s coast in the fall — the largest spill ever off Canada’s East Coast — renewed those calls for change to what’s seen as self-regulation by industry.

Critics say there is a built-in conflict of interest in the C-NLOPB’s mandate, given its responsibility for development, as well as safety and environment.

Senators also heard from Saskatchewan Minister of Energy and Resources Bronwyn Eyre, who told the committee this bill would be “economically devastating,” and only lead to “non-streamlining and non-efficiency.”
​
“If ever ‘sober second thought’ were necessary, it is with this bill,” she said.

READ MORE: https://ipolitics.ca/2019/02/28/premiers-push-ottawa-for-changes-to-environmental-assessment-bill/