In the wake of the decision by the Supreme Court of Canada that the "designated projects" portions of the federal Impact Assessment Law is unconstitutional, the Green Party of Canada calls on the Federal Liberals to bring forward legislation that repairs the errors of Bill C-69.
"At many levels, C-69 was a tragic error," said Elizabeth May, co-leader of the Green Party of Canada and Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands. "C-69's drafters ignored the advice from the expert environmental law panel, reduced dramatically the number of projects reviewed and made the whole process highly discretionary. In doing so C-69 exceeded federal jurisdiction. These are some of the reasons I voted against C-69 and pressed for amendments to repair it at the time. "
The federal government needs to repair the environmental assessment (EA) legislation now partially undone by a totally predictable ruling from the Supreme Court of Canada. Federal EA needs to focus on actions of the federal government - we need to restore predictable assessment of projects involving clear federal jurisdiction, projects involving federal money, federal land and permits from federal authorities. In other words, at long last, this government must restore the pre-Harper approach to environmental reviews.
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