Senate passes Liberal government’s contentious environmental assessment bill

Theglobeandmail.com
June 21, 2019
Shawn McCarthy

The Senate voted late Thursday to pass the Liberal government’s contentious Bill C-69, which overhauls the way Ottawa reviews major resource projects.

By a vote of 57-37, senators passed the legislation that they had sent back to the House of Commons with some 182 amendments, only to see the Liberals strip from the bill virtually all of those supported by Alberta and the oil industry.

The government argued the legislation will protect the environment and the rights of Indigenous communities while ensuring good resource projects receive approval in a predictable review process.

“Better rules will provide certainty to business and show investors that Canada is the best place in the world to invest,” Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna said in a statement issued Thursday night.

She said many of the Conservative amendments from the Senate were essentially written by oil industry lobbyists.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has vowed to launch a constitutional challenge arguing the legislation infringes on provincial rights, while the oil industry complains it will drive away investment and make it impossible to get new pipelines approved.

The legislation has been a flash point for Western anger over the Liberal government’s handling of the resource economy, with industry groups mounting a ferocious lobbying campaign after it was passed by the House of Commons and sent to the Senate last fall.

The Senate also passed the legislation that imposes a ban on marine tankers from picking up or delivering large quantities of crude on British Columbia’s northerly coast. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised in the 2015 election to impose a tanker ban to ensure no oil pipelines would be built through the B.C. Great Bear rainforest.

Premier Kenney warned that passage of the two bills would inflame Western alienation and precipitate a national unity crisis, a claim the Prime Minister condemned as “irresponsible.”

Conservative Senator David Tkachuk criticized the Independent Senate Group, who were appointed by Mr. Trudeau but sit as independents, for voting for the bill even after the Liberals stripped away many of the amendments that they had endorsed just a few weeks ago.
“It’s sad but not surprising that this government has chosen to turn their back on Canadian middle class families, and instead are listening only to special interest groups who completely oppose the oil sands and resource development,” Senator Tkachuk said in a release.

Independent Senator Paula Simons, from Edmonton, voted in favor of C-69, noting the government had accepted 99 amendments from the independents. Those changes to the bill “improved it hugely,” Senator Simons said on Twitter.