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OTTAWA – The Conservative government will bring forward new rules to greatly shorten environmental reviews of pipelines and other major projects, arguing that “radical groups” are exploiting the reviews to block proposals vital to Canada’s economic future.
On the eve of hearings into the proposed Northern Gateway oil pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific coast, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver released a strongly-worded open letter Monday condemning some opponents of the pipeline. A copy of the letter was provided in advance to The Globe and Mail.
The letter warns of “environmental and other radical groups” including “jet-setting celebrities” funded by foreign special interest groups who “threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological ends.”
They system “is broken,” Mr. Oliver concludes in the letter. “It’s time to take a look at it.”
In an interview Sunday, the minister said his department is examining the existing rules around the environmental review process to prevent the same objections from being made repeatedly by different people or groups.
“What we are looking at is providing definitive timelines from start to finish on the regulatory process,” said Mr. Oliver.
“The objective should be that these reviews would no longer go on for many, many years. They would have a definitive timeline that would provide certainty to the participants who are sponsoring the project.”
Such changes could not be easily or quickly imposed. “There may be a need for legislation,” Mr. Oliver acknowledged, though he couldn’t say when such legislation would be introduced.
The minister would not comment on whether the legislation could affect the environmental review of the Gateway itself.
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