Ottawa kept info from provinces: minister
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$19 $0 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*No charge for 4 weeks then billed as $19 every four weeks (new subscribers and qualified returning subscribers only). Cancel anytime.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/03/2019 (1834 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
OTTAWA — The Pallister government is accusing the federal Liberals of not trusting the provinces, by withholding information on a crucial overhaul of how major energy and infrastructure projects are assessed.
“It’s concerning; it’s not how you build a relationship on something as important as environmental assessments and working with our Indigenous communities,” Manitoba Enterprise Minister Blaine Pedersen told the Free Press.
He testified Thursday to the Senate energy committee on Bill C-69, which will change how officials assess the effects of everything from pipelines to hydroelectric dams on the environment and Indigenous people.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has tasked senators with fixing the bill, after concerns it will go against the legislation’s stated goals of speeding up reviews and flagging potential issues early in the process.
A major source of tension has been the lack of a long-promised “project list” to outline the criteria for what will fall within the scope of the new regime.
Pedersen, for example, has wondered whether upgrades to existing transmission lines will prompt reviews.
On Thursday, he told senators Ottawa showed two of his officials a draft project list — on the condition they not tell him what it says.
“They were sworn to secrecy before they walked into the meeting,” he testified. “They were not allowed to memorize it, copy it or otherwise do anything with it.”
Senators, many of whom were appointed by Trudeau, have derided his government for months over not providing a list. Some were aghast to hear Ottawa had presented its draft list secretly.
A spokesman for the Manitoba government said Ottawa passed the draft around during a March 5 federal-provincial-territorial meeting in Toronto of department heads who oversee environmental policies.
“A draft project list was circulated for discussion. It was done on a confidential basis under signed non-disclosure agreements,” the spokesman wrote.
Sen. Rosa Galvez, the committee chairwoman, suggested the drafted list might be confidential, due to commercial considerations, as it would reveal which industries would be affected by the bill before its scope is finalized.
Pedersen said elected provincial officials like himself ought to see the list, in order to help craft it.
“We deal with confidential stuff all the time at cabinet,” he said in an interview. “If it’s explicit that they do not want it shared commercially, we will respect that.”
When asked why Ottawa is taking so long to publish its project list, a spokeswoman for federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna wrote that her office is “consulting widely,” and claimed the government had spoken to the provinces about the criteria prior to this month’s meeting.
“This is a normal practice in the enactment of any new regulations,” Sabrina Kim wrote.
Meanwhile, Pedersen said encoding assessment powers for Indigenous leaders as well as the United Nations language of “free, prior and informed consent” requires more clear definitions.
“More needs to be done to clarify how traditional (Indigenous) knowledge is defined, and how it will be reconciled with scientific evaluation, in the event they differ,” he said, later stressing the two often complement each other.
Manitoba Sen. Mary Jane McCallum, who hails from a reserve in the north, challenged Pedersen, saying Manitoba Hydro has brought flooding and environmental devastation to communities, with limited benefits.
“I’m sort of overwhelmed with all that you’ve said, and I don’t know how to proceed from there,” she said.
“In Manitoba, we really haven’t had that conversation in public, between the government and First Nations, because there’s a power imbalance,” she said. “First Nations want economic development as well.”
dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca