Read this article from the Globe and Mail on the Harper Government’s intention to use its upcoming budget bill to relax environmental review standards in order to facilitate industry. (March 26, 2012)
The Harper government will hand over the environmental review of certain resource projects to provinces as part of a long-promised overhaul of regulations to be highlighted in Thursday’s budget.
Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver confirmed Monday that the budget will spell out the government’s intention to reduce regulatory delays faced by energy and mining companies when they propose major projects in Canada.
The package will include legislative amendments that are expected to be part of the government’s overall budget implementation act – a prospect that is raising concerns among opposition MPs and environmentalists that the Conservatives intend to ram through the changes with little debate.
Mr. Oliver said Ottawa is determined to streamline approvals and reduce duplication, and wants to reach deals with individual provinces that would see only one level of government conduct an environmental assessment of a major resource project.
“And that doesn’t mean that the province will necessarily be the one to step back; it could be the federal government if the province has the capacity to do the review,” Mr. Oliver said in an interview. “And a number of the provinces do, in fact, have that capacity.
The Conservatives have been signalling for months that they intend to reduce the hurdles that resource companies face, whether in the oil sands, in constructing pipelines or in building mines. However, the changes will not affect the current hearings on the Northern Gateway pipeline, the proposal by Enbridge Inc. to ship oil-sands bitumen to Kitimat, B.C., for export by supertanker to Asian markets.