Supreme Court’s ruling leaves resource companies uncertain of environmental regulations on projects

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday that Ottawa has overstepped its constitutional authority in how it regulates major resource projects in Canada, throwing the sector into deep uncertainty as companies wait for clarity from the federal government in its legislative response.

“Parliament has plainly overstepped its constitutional competence in enacting this designated projects scheme,” he wrote.’s jurisdiction to police resource projects is instead narrower in scope, and restricted to areas such as assessing the impact that projects have on fisheries, the bird population, species at risk, and other areas where it has clear constitutional authority.

“We need to ensure that there is clarity,” Mr. Wilkinson said. “It is in everybody’s interest that we act expeditiously. I don’t think at this stage, given that the ruling just came out, that we can give a specific time frame on that, but we certainly are going to move as quickly as we can.” The federal government had declared the project incompatible with Canada’s emissions targets, “but the Supreme Court has now very clearly said, ‘Federal government, you can’t use GHG emissions. It’s not in your basket,’ ” Ms. Orenstein said in an interview.

What changes is that Ottawa will likely no longer be able to grant approval, or turn down a major mining project, in one fell swoop, Mr. Junger said.

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