Following the National Energy Board overhaul with major new energy projects, now assessed and either approved or denied within two years, a local MP weighs in.
Cathy McLeod says she thinks it’s not going to be realistic for major projects to be assessed and either approved or denied within two years- as it’s a lot more work.
“So really, what they’re claiming they’re going to do is they’re going to do more consultation, more of many things, in a shorter time. And I really, quite frankly, don’t think that’s feasible.
“The other thing they talked about is that it’s an improvement over what was happening prior with our changes. But if you looked into it, and the committee looked into it quite significantly, there was never an example that was given that showed that there was any negative environmental impact with the existing structure.”
McLeod says, it’s good that they found a way to incorporate some more consultation with Indigenous communities, however,
“One area that I thought was kind of interesting was, when traditional knowledge is provided in terms of making a decision around the process, that it can be kept in confidence by the minister, or has to be kept in confidence by the minister. So you know, to me, that’s not a transparent process.”
McLeod says, as it’s also been put into the fisheries act and environmental assessment act, they’ll be bringing it up to find out why.