Ottawa is getting a warning from veteran proponents of Western Canadian energy projects that it needs to make sweeping changes to speed up its regulatory processes, if it hopes to build the infrastructure needed to meet national climate commitments and compete in a low-carbon economy.
Mr. Legge also argued that faster project approvals are key to competing with the United States for low-carbon investment. While Canada can’t match the hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies that President Joe Biden’s administration has committed through the Inflation Reduction Act, he said, it has had a regulatory advantage because processes in the U.S. are even slower. But that could be reversed because of emerging efforts in Washington to dramatically accelerate energy permitting.
That includes the build-out of carbon-capture technology, which is of particular interest to an oil-and-gas sector trying to prove it can be more sustainable; it also ranges from hydroelectricity and large-scale wind and solar projects, to energy storage, to battery-material mining and hydrogen production.
While that legislation establishing a new impact-assessment process is still being challenged in court by the Alberta government, which contends that it’s too expansive and restrictive toward energy projects, the report is premised on it remaining in place. And Mr. Legge said he has seen some causes for encouragement about its interpretation.
It’s calling for a range of measures to both strengthen and expedite Indigenous consultations – including clearer definitions and guidelines for engagement, centralization of consultations currently spread across federal departments, and financial mechanisms to support Indigenous equity in projects.