VANCOUVER — Erin Flanagan, federal policy director at the Pembina Institute, made the following statement in response to environmental assessment and National Energy Board review processes launched today:
“We are pleased to see the government move forward on its commitment to rebuild Canada’s environmental assessment (EA) laws and to ensure credible reviews occur for all projects. We’ll measure the success of today’s announcement by the government’s ability to introduce new legislation that supports decision-making and infrastructure investments in a world transitioning away from fossil fuels.
“To restore public trust in project reviews, the federal government must develop EA processes that bring to bear the best available environmental science and that align with the temperature limits outlined in the Paris Agreement. In particular, regulators and elected officials should design a system that ensures the climate consequences of proposed energy infrastructure, including oilsands pipelines and LNG terminals, are adequately considered within their local, regional and national policy context.
“We encourage the government to develop a pre-screen for all proposed projects based on key environmental indicators, including upstream greenhouse gas impacts. Such a process should trigger immediate assessment considerations, and should be fairly applied to all major projects. We encourage the federal government to propose its new environmental assessment legislation by Budget 2017.”
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Contact
Erin Flanagan (English / français)
Federal Policy Director, Pembina Institute
587-581-1701
Kelly O’Connor
Communications Lead, Pembina Institute
416-220-8804
Background
Reacts: Pembina reacts to federal climate test principles (January 2016)
Blog: Success of the Paris Agreement will be measured by policy progress here at home (December 2015)
Blog: Election 2015: What’s been said and where we go from here (October 2015)