Ottawa scales back major energy projects review
The Canadian government is shifting oversight of major energy projects from a federal environmental review process to the Canada Energy Regulator. Environmental groups argue this move weakens oversight, while the government claims it will streamline approvals and boost investment.
Why it matters
This policy change represents a significant shift in Canadian environmental regulation, potentially accelerating industrial development at the cost of stricter oversight.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is scaling back a major Trudeau-era environmental review process, a move environmental groups say will weaken oversight of some of Canada’s largest industrial projects.
The change, published Wednesday in the Canada Gazette , removes several energy projects from the federal impact assessment regime and shifts responsibility for their review to the Canada Energy Regulator (CER).
The federal government said the change will “simplify the project decision process” by relying on a single federal regulator.
Environmental groups quickly condemned the move.
“The government has wiped its hands of doing a fulsome environmental review of the most polluting projects like oil pipelines and gas plants, at a time of unprecedented climate disaster,” said Julia Levin of Environmental Defence.
Levin said the Carney government was “turning its back on the requirement to conduct real reviews” of major projects.
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