The future of Canada’s resource industry today sits in the hands of Canada’s 95 Senators.
Bill C-69, known as the “Impact Assessment Act,” is the federal government’s attempt to impose new “environmental assessment” measures on Canada’s resource sector.
It’s terrible legislation.
It will further delay and discourage investment in Canadian pipelines, mines, and other resource infrastructure. It imposes a “green agenda,” new layers of bureaucracy, higher costs, longer delays, and more uncertainty on Canada’s resource sector.
Nobody is against tough, fair, and clear resource regulation. Investors, provincial energy ministers, “suits” and “boots” in the mining and energy sectors, think tanks, and key stakeholders in Canada all agree on that.
But that’s not what they find in C-69. Instead, they get a short-sighted, confused, and written proposal. And that’s why these stakeholders have unanimously given C-69 a thumbs-down.
Yet, this Bill sailed through the House of Commons before the summer break, assured of passage with the current Liberal government majority.
We must kill this Bill in the Senate of Canada – where it currently sits. If not, Bill C-69 will be the hammer that nails shut the coffin of resource sector investment in our country.
The Senate has the power to kill C-69 in the next few weeks. The Senate has a track record in this domain. It’s used this power to kill or turn back more than 200 bills since Confederation.
In 1988, it opposed the Free Trade Bill, forcing a general election that year. It opposed the GST. It rejected the Commons bill restricting abortion (C-43), a proposal to streamline federal agencies (C-93), and a bill to redevelop Pearson Airport (C-28). In December 2010, it rejected Bill C-311 on greenhouse gas regulation – the majority Conservatives beat it on a vote of 43-32.
There are 95 sitting Senators today, so 48 Senate votes are needed to kill this Bill. There are 31 Conservative Senators who will all very likely oppose C-69. That means an additional 17 Senate votes are needed from the remaining 64 Senators – 11 Liberal, 45 Independent, and 8 Non-Affiliateds.
It’s insufficient to send this Bill back to the House with amendments. Senator Doug Black recently told the Financial Post, “This bill is so seriously flawed – you’d have to have hundreds of amendments.” He points out strong resistance to C-69 from energy, mining, forestry, and port expansion projects.
So, Suits and Boots and its supporters have been calling each and every one of these 64 Senators, urging them to Kill Bill C-69. Here’s why:
- The proposed law was introduced by the Minister of Environment and Climate Change – not by the Minister of Natural Resources. It was reviewed by the House Environment Committee rather than the Energy Committee and had minimal witness hearings from the Energy Department.
- The Bill also contains a clause requiring new resource projects to be scrutinized according to “the intersection of sex and gender with other identity factors.” Seriously.
- This Bill gives the federal Environment Minister discretionary power to decide whether a project goes ahead. Foreign investors will see this for what it is: a vague, lengthy, expensive, and politically motivated decision-making process.
- The Business Council of BC says this proposed law will lead to “greater difficulty securing permits… heightened uncertainty among company managers, project developers and investors.” The Council says Bill C69 will help “accelerate outflows of business investment to other jurisdictions”.
- On average, project review timelines will be extended from an already slow 4 years by another 8-10 months. All this while American regulators are moving to two-year timelines.
- Bill C-69 imposes new geographic and upstream/downstream criteria on Greenhouse Gas Emission standards. This effectively takes away provincial government authority on natural resource development or exploration and is mainly out of the control of pipeline companies.
- The Fuzzy scientific standards imposed by Bill C-69 make it unclear if they are the same for indigenous and non-indigenous bodies who will be doing assessments.
- New and relaxed public input standards for participation in hearings set the bar so low that it’s easy to see a huge influx of poorly informed, politically stacked, repetitive presentations. This favors opponents of resource projects who have the time, money, and support from offshore sources.
- The Bill contains a clause that sets a dangerous precedent by turning Canada’s voluntary commitments to climate change into legal obligations that could be used against us by our trading partners.
- Bill C-69 falls far short of setting enough support for resource development proponents during the review process. The Trans Mountain Expansion Project Application had 8,800 pages describing the negative effects on local communities – but just two pages on its economic, fiscal, and energy benefits. This won’t change under C-69.
You can help kill C-69 today! Please tell them to Kill Bill C-69.