Prime Minister Mark Carney is rolling back key Trudeau-era Bill C-69 pipeline rules he outright refused to scrap, as Ottawa pushes ahead with a new West Coast pipeline.
The changes took effect Wednesday, pulling interprovincial and international pipelines from the Impact Assessment Act’s designated-project process. They will instead face assessments led by the Calgary-based Canada Energy Regulator (CER), according to Blacklock’s Reporter.
“The purpose of the amended regulations is to simplify the project decision process for interprovincial pipelines by assigning the responsibility for assessing these and certain other projects to a single federal regulator,” cabinet said Wednesday.
Power lines and some offshore renewable projects will also shift to CER-led assessments, while oilsands facilities and fossil fuel power plants will be removed from the Project List.
“Industry stakeholders expressed strong support,” cabinet said.
