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The Environment

During Question Period on the environment, members exchanged views over Bill C-39, which deals with how major projects such as pipelines are assessed and approved. Yves Perron of the Bloc Québécois said the bill removes environmental protections, arguing that pipelines would be exempt from full environmental impact assessments and instead judged by the Canada Energy Regulator, whose members he described as coming largely from the oil industry, and that companies could begin work before reviews were finished. Government House leader Steven MacKinnon responded that the bill does not lower environmental standards or interfere in Quebec’s jurisdictions, that robust environmental assessments would still take place, and that federal regulators serve the whole country and rely on science regardless of where they are located. MacKinnon said the government wants to pass the bill to speed up project approvals and create jobs.Written by AI from the debate. Updated .

Official text

4 statements

Yves Perron

Bloc Québécois

Linked statement

“I oppose this bill because it weakens environmental protections. It exempts pipelines from environmental assessments and only uses an energy regulator that always supports pipelines. It also lets companies start work before reviews are finished.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister claims that Bill C‑39 does not lower environmental standards. Let us imagine a pipeline project in Quebec, like Marinvest. Under Bill C‑39, pipelines are exempt from environmental impact assessments. The only assessment will be the one completed by the energy regulator in Calgary, which has never seen a pipeline it did not like. Worse still, Ottawa wants to be able to allow proponents to start their work before the assessment is complete. How can anyone claim that this is not a step backwards?

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Steven MacKinnon

Liberal
“The Bloc Québécois is wrong. We are not meddling in Quebec's affairs, and we are not skipping environmental reviews. We will still do strong environmental reviews for pipelines and other federal projects.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Bloc Québécois said that we were meddling with Quebec’s areas of jurisdiction. Of course, none of that is true. Today, it is saying that we are going to ignore environmental assessments. That is not at all the case. There will be very robust environmental assessments when it comes to pipelines and any other process or project that is federally regulated.

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Yves Perron

Bloc Québécois
“I oppose this bill because it removes environmental standards. Under this law, the energy regulator in Calgary would decide on pipelines in Quebec. Most of its members come from oil companies, while scientists and people from Quebec get no say.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, the leader of the House is right. The goal of Bill C-39 is not to lower environmental standards. It is to eliminate them. If a pipeline were to go through Quebec, here is what Bill C-39 sets out for the environmental assessment. The energy regulator in Calgary will be the one to make the final decision. It is made up of seven commissioners, and five of the seven come from the oil industry. At the table are TC Energy, Shell, Pembina Pipeline, Canadian Oil Sands Limited and Cenovus Energy. Meanwhile, scientists and Quebeckers do not have a seat at the table. If we are not at the table, are we on the menu?

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Steven MacKinnon

Liberal
“Our federal regulators serve the whole country and rely on good science, no matter where their offices are. The Bloc Québécois is making baseless claims. We want to pass this bill to speed up project approvals and create jobs for all Canadians.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, first, the energy regulator in Calgary is the Canada Energy Regulator, just like the space agency in Saint-Hubert is the Canadian Space Agency. Regardless of where these organizations are located in the country, we have regulators that make us the envy of the world and that have access to sound evidence and science. The Bloc Québécois keeps throwing spaghetti at the wall, but unfortunately, none of it is sticking. We are going to move faster and provide jobs and economic opportunities for all Quebeckers and Canadians.

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