Liberals launch public reviews of environmental assessments, National Energy Board

Six Liberal cabinet ministers announced a series of public consultations to begin later this year - but not before Canadians weigh in on the proposed mandate of two new expert panels.

Thestar.com
June 20, 2016
By The Canadian Press

The federal government is slowly gearing up for an across-the-board review of environmental assessments, the National Energy Board and protections for fisheries and navigable waters.

Six Liberal cabinet ministers announced a series of public consultations to begin later this year - but not before Canadians weigh in on the proposed mandate of two new expert panels.

The target of the exercise appears to be controversial changes made by the former Conservative government in 2012 that were supposed to speed up major resource development approvals.

The Liberal election platform last fall promised to immediately review the environmental assessment processes and introduce new ones.

Now, with the House of Commons adjourned for the summer, the government is proposing that two committees study protection for fisheries and navigable waters, which were significantly reduced in a Conservative omnibus budget bill four years ago.

Separate, expert panels, meanwhile, will look at the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and the National Energy Board, with both given a deadline of Jan. 31, 2017.

The Liberals announced interim changes to the way resource projects are assessed in January, but promised at the time that a more fundamental overhaul of the National Energy Board was in the works.

The scope of the NEB review is to include the board’s mandate, its governance and structure, enforcement and ongoing monitoring of things like pipelines and how it makes decisions on major project applications.

There’s also a 30-day window for the public to comment on the proposed mandates for the two expert panels.

The government has not yet announced who will sit on either panel and as for the committee studies, the Commons fisheries and transport committees won’t begin deliberations on any possible reviews until they reconvene sometime after the House resumes sitting on Sept. 19.