Alberta taking Ottawa back to court over assessment act

The province of Alberta said November 28 it is taking the federal government back to court, alleging Ottawa’s changes to the Impact Assessment Act (IAC) fail to correct the constitutional deficiencies identified in 2023 by the Supreme Court of Canada (SCOC).

Ottawa made some minor amendments to the IAC in June as part of a broader omnibus budget bill, but in October Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said those changes failed to address the aspects of the IAC which allowed Ottawa to intrude into areas of provincial jurisdiction. She gave Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault four weeks to bring more robust amendments forward.

Ottawa has failed to make those changes, Smith said, forcing Alberta to again refer the constitutionality of the amended IAC to the Court of Appeal of Alberta. If the Alberta court rules in the province’s favour, the amended act will likely end up before the SCOC again, taking the same path as Alberta’s original challenge.

“We have tried working with Ottawa to change their deeply flawed and unconstitutional Impact Assessment Act, but we’ve been met with resistance every step of the way,” Smith said. “They have chosen to disregard our input, disregard a Supreme Court of Canada decision, and disregard our deadline, so we’ll see them in court. Again. We will not stand down on this issue.”

Among other measures, Alberta wants the amended IAC to recognise equivalency and the ability to substitute a provincial impact assessment for a federal assessment, impose concrete timelines on federal assessments and curb ministerial discretion in accepting the results of those assessments and focus the public interest decision-making process on significant adverse effects within federal jurisdiction and countervailing positive effects.

“The federal government needs to respect the decisions of the Supreme Court and stop making meaningless attempts to bypass the rulings of Canada’s highest court,” Mickey Amery, Alberta Minister of Justice and Attorney General, said. “The courts agreed with Alberta in the first legal challenge, and we are prepared to fight as many times as is necessary to defend the rights of Albertans against this blatant overreach.”