Harper government drops heavy oil processing from environmental review list

Harper government drops heavy oil processing from environmental review list

Building a diamond mine, expanding an oilsands mine, offshore exploration or an interprovincial bridge could soon require a federal environmental review under proposed additions and subtractions to the Harper government's new environmental rules.
But provincially regulated pipelines, facilities used to process the heavy oil from the oilsands, pulp and paper mills as well as chemical explosive plants are among those being deleted from a list of projects requiring federal environmental investigations prior to approval.
The proposed changes would be part of amended regulations for new environmental laws, adopted last July, which have already cancelled about 3,000 investigations, by removing the triggers that required the assessments and replacing them with the list of projects.
The proposal said that the government has started 17 assessments of different projects under the new 2012 environmental assessment law, and was not "significantly" expecting further changes to the total number of annual reviews.
Environment Minister Peter Kent has defended the legislation, proposed by the oil and gas industry, explaining that it allows the government to reduce duplication and focus federal resources on the projects that have the greatest environmental risks and impacts.
The latest proposed changes, now subject to a 30-day consultation period that began on April 20, would also delete groundwater extraction facilities, provincially regulated electrical transmission lines, a wide range of mining projects, as well as steel mills, metal smelters and pharmaceutical plants.
Isabelle Perrault, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency said "it is generally the view that these types of projects do not have a high potential to cause significant adverse environmental effects in areas of federal jurisdiction."
She also said the new laws adopted in July give the minister powers to require an environmental assessment if a proposed project is not on the list, but has high environmental risks in areas of federal jurisdiction.
Stephen Hazell, an Ottawa-based environmental lawyer who directed a government team that developed federal environmental regulations in the 1990s, said the list of projects added and subtracted did not make sense.
"It's really unfathomable," Hazell said in an interview. "How can you take heavy oil processing facilities off the list?"
Environmental assessments are meant to evaluate the impacts of new industrial projects, setting conditions that require proponents to mitigate potential damage and then proceed with development.
Hazell said it was positive to see some projects such as diamond mines as well as interprovincial bridges and tunnels added, but he added that the deletions opened up risks in other areas.