Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr has reiterated the federal government’s pledge to overhaul the National Energy Board in order to restore public confidence in Canada’s pipeline review process. But the promised legislative changes will not come quickly.
“You don’t rush your way into decisions that affect not only today, but generationally in Canada in the new world of sustainably moving resources to market,” Carr said Monday while attending the federal cabinet’s retreat in New Brunswick.
Over the last month, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs and Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan requested Carr and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suspend the review of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline to avoid a decision being pushed through a process they claim is “deeply flawed.” Trans Mountain’s final hearings began as schedule on January 19 in Burnaby, British Columbia.
“The minister is correct, we shouldn’t rush the creation of a new process,” Andrea Harden-Donahue, energy and climate justice campaigner with the Council of Canadians, said. “But continuing with the flawed Kinder Morgan and Energy East reviews is entirely inconsistent with Liberal promises. How can a ‘transition strategy’ rectify the failings around public participation and Indigenous consultation for these projects. I don’t see how this can happen.”