March 23, 2009
Upcoming federal EA changes concern Cullen
George T. Baker
Prince Rupert Daily News
Page: 1 / FRONT
Skeen-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen is concerned by the federal government’s decision to gut the federal environmental review process.
The Conservatives Minister for Environment, Jim Prentice, told a Calgary business crowd that the government intends to strip the reviews of red tape so that projects planned for the country would be streamlined.
Cullen worried what it could mean for environmental management going forward.
“The government is going to propose the most dangerous changes to our environmental assessment in our country’s history,” worried Cullen.
The Conservatives have suggested that the changes will have nothing to do with major projects planned for the country such as mining, pipelines and oilsands.
But Prentice has indicated to The that the federal government is examining ways of eliminating duplication of environmental reviews for larger projects as well.
There is a lot at stake economically in Northern B.C.
An analysis by The Citizen shows that eight mines and a natural gas pipeline, with a total investment of more than $7 billion, would create an estimated 4,000 construction jobs and 2,000 permanent jobs.
And on Friday, Prentice told Canadian Press that it’s not yet clear which projects will be exempt from the federal process, but ones not thought to have any negative environmental impact – like a “green” wastewater facility – would be excused.
He insisted the “streamlining” would create jobs and speed up projects linked to Ottawa’s $12-billion infrastructure spending that could get bogged down in the review process.
“We need to make sure that the money we’re investing is invested quickly in public infrastructure,” he said. “This will expedite the process (and) eliminate the duplication.”
Cullen, who sat previously as the NDP’s critic for environment and now sits as the critic for Natural Resources and Energy, said that environmental review reform has been needed for some while – but stripping the environmental act down to a bare minimum would be disastrous for the country.
Every five years the environment assessment process gets reviewed but this time – before the review has even started – the federal government has changed the policy.
“It needed reform and by law we needed to reform it this year – but before we even started the government has cut out feet out from under us,” said Cullen.
There have been calls by industry leaders and the provincial government to eliminate duplicity on projects that require both the provincial and federal governments to review potential environmental harms.
Cullen was not sure whether or not the changes would affect a project like Enbridge’s Northern Gateway or phase two of the Fairview container port expansion.
