EDMONTON, AB – Alberta’s NDP government has once again defeated a common-sense motion in the Legislature to stand up for Alberta’s energy jobs and defend provincial jurisdiction following recent overreach by the federal government.
United Conservative Leader Jason Kenney put forward Motion 505, which calls on the NDP to formally request federal legislation prohibiting the consideration of upstream and downstream emissions in the pipeline approval process:
Be it resolved that the Legislative Assembly urge the Government to immediately demand that the Government of Canada introduce any necessary legislative changes that would prohibit the consideration of upstream and downstream emissions by a federal energy regulator at any stage of the pipeline approval process.
“At a time of continued uncertainty for our job-creating energy industry, it’s regrettable that the NDP has chosen to stand up for their Trudeau Liberal allies instead of everyday Albertans,” said Kenney. “The inclusion of upstream and downstream emissions in the pipeline approval process is overreach into the pipeline approval process and is a massive barrier to future investment in our natural resources sector.”
The inclusion of upstream and downstream emissions in the federal government’s Bill C-69, the Impact Assessment Act, is a massive encroachment on provincial jurisdiction, violating Section 92A of the Constitution, which states that “the legislature may exclusively make laws in relation to… development, conservation and management of non-renewable natural resources.”
According to the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association, Bill C-69 will have a devastating impact on the energy sector: “With built-in climate change tests covering upstream and downstream GHG emissions… If the goal is to curtail oil and gas production and to have no more pipelines built, this legislation has hit the mark.”
Last year, the federal government killed TransCanada’s Energy East, a $16 billion project that would have shipped 1.1 million barrels per day, through the mid-review inclusion of upstream and downstream emissions considerations in the National Energy Board review process.
“Alberta’s NDP government sat by and did nothing while the federal government halted the much-needed Energy East project,” said Kenney. “They could have applied to the Federal Court to quash the NEB’s mandate creep into provincial jurisdiction but didn’t, and now they’re siding with the Trudeau Liberal government over our job-creating energy industry once again.”