Ottawa rejects nearly all Tory amendments to contentious resource development bill

Theglobeandmail.com
June 12, 2019
Shawn McCarthy

The Liberal government has rejected virtually all amendments that Conservative senators made to the legislation overhauling the review process for major resource projects, and plans to debate a revised bill Wednesday.

In a notice posted overnight, the government outlined its own amendments, which include many that were put forward by the Independent Senate Group (ISG) but virtually none of the Conservatives ones.

Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna is expected to kick off debate on the highly contentious legislation Wednesday afternoon, followed by a vote in the House of Commons where the Liberals hold a majority. The amended bill would then be returned for consideration by the Senate, which is dominated by the ISG.

The legislation, Bill C-69, has been a flashpoint for Western anger over the Liberal government’s handling of the resource economy, with industry groups -- who mounted a ferocious lobbying campaign - insisting it would preclude new pipeline from ever being built.

The Liberal government has rejected calls by industry and several premiers to adopt a series of Conservative amendments because they would have seriously weakened the bill, a senior government source said late Tuesday. The official is being granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the legislation.

Those amendments would limit public participation in hearings; put industry-specific regulatory bodies in charge of reviews, and eliminate a requirement that panels must consider climate change and Indigenous rights when reviewing major resource projects.

However, the government has accepted amendments that would rein in the minister of environment’s discretion to intervene in a hearing process; clarify that the review agency has the power to manage public participation in order to meet strict timelines, and add explicit language that the goal of the project assessments is to ensure economic development along with sustainability.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau criticized six conservative premiers who warned the government would precipitate a national unity crisis if it rejected the amendments to Bill C-69, while also passing a bill that bans the export of crude by large tankers from ports in northern British Columbia.

The premiers, led by Alberta’s Jason Kenney, said the combined impact of the two bills would undermine Canada’s resource economy and inflame regional tensions.

Mr. Trudeau said the government is happy to accept amendments that make the bill better and are in the best interests of the country.

“What we will not do is accept the premiers’ saying ‘There is a threat to national unity if we don’t get our way,’” the Prime Minister said in the House of Commons on Tuesday. “That is not the way to hold this country together.”

Mr. Kenney was not impressed, saying the premiers signed the letter “in the best tradition of co-operative federalism.”

"We only asked to be heard, and this dismissive response from the federal government is the real threat to the national economy and to national unity," he said in a tweet.

The Conservative amendments were adopted by the Senate energy and environment committee, which approved two packages of changes -- one from the opposition and another from the independent group. The full Senate then voted to send all of the proposed amendments back to the House of Commons.

Environmental advocates and some First Nations leaders have condemned the Conservative package as essentially gutting the bill and undermining protections of the environment and Indigenous rights.