Launch of New Regulator a ‘Dark Day’: Alberta
The Canada Energy Regulator (CER) opened for business August 28, under the contentious federal Bill C-69, and Alberta energy and justice officials were quick to blast its inception.
“This is a dark day for Alberta and Canada as a whole,” energy minister Sonya Savage and justice minister Doug Schweitzer said in a joint statement. “As we have said loudly and repeatedly, this act is an unconstitutional attack on Alberta and our vital economic interests. It will make it virtually impossible for any future pipelines and other critical infrastructure projects that Canadians depend on – including electricity infrastructure and transmission lines, renewables, ports, railways and highways – to be approved in Canada.”
Under Bill C-69, the National Energy Board (NEB) – a globally-respected energy regulatory body – has been replaced by the CER, consisting of a board of directors that will provide strategic oversight and a group of commissioners who will make regulatory decisions as set out in the Canada Energy Regulator Act and other legislation. Peter Watson, who previously was chair and CEO of the NEB, will stay on as CEO of the CER, while Cassie Doyle, a former federal deputy energy minister, will chair the board of directors and Damien Cote, a temporary member of the NEB since October 2016, will be CER’s lead commissioner.
Although the commissioners will make decisions and recommendations independently, the final approval of all major energy infrastructure projects will rest with the federal cabinet.
Savage and Schweitzer said the new legislation will drive “billions of dollars” of capital investment and “tens of thousands of jobs” away from Canada, to the US and other jurisdictions. All Canadians, they said, should be concerned with the potential impact Bill C-69 – which was widely opposed by most provinces – will have on the Canadian economy.
“It is baffling that a federal government would proclaim this act when nine out of 10 provinces are opposed to it in whole or in part,” they said. “And if that weren’t enough, indigenous groups and trade unions are also on record as objecting to this discriminatory legislation.”
Under the Canadian constitution, the provinces have clear and sole jurisdiction over the development of natural resources, and Alberta has vowed to launch a constitutional challenge of Bill C-69, a “discriminatory” piece of legislation that Savage and Schweitzer said would have nothing but "irreversible impacts."