Smith makes good on her promise to take Ottawa to court

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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her government are forging ahead with taking legal action against the federal government’s environmental assessment law for the second time.

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The federal Impact Assessment Act, which was enacted in 2019, allowed federal regulators to consider numerous new potential environmental and social impacts when assessing oil and gas projects, mines, power plants and other major projects. However, a Supreme Court of Canada ruling in 2023 found much of it was unconstitutional.

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Following the ruling, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government would make amendments to the act, but Smith said they gave Ottawa a four-week deadline to make the necessary amendments, but said they ultimately failed to address Alberta’s concerns.

“We are once again taking Ottawa to court for their deeply flawed and unconstitutional legislation,” Smith said.

Smith sent a letter to Trudeau in October informing him that the amendments the federal governments made last June did not live up to the Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling. In it she sent a list of proposed amendments, including eliminating federal encroachment into Alberta’s jurisdiction, allowing provincial environmental assessments to be considered equivalent to federal ones and imposing concrete approval timelines aimed to give investors more certainty.

She added the act would have impacts on investors looking to come to Alberta since it makes the approval process “long and complicated” for investors who she said will “take their money someplace else.”

Justice Minister Mickey Amery said they will argue that the Impact Assessment Act remains unconstitutional and encroaches on provincial jurisdiction despite the amendments made in the summer.

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The province filed the question via an order in council on Nov. 20 and on Thursday morning the province filed their reference case at the Alberta Court of Appeal.

Amery said the province has been in contact with their counterparts across Canada.

“It hinders and harms our energy industry like nothing else,” Amery said. “It will create unpredictability and instability in the market.”

A joint statement by federal Environmental Minister Steven Guilbeault and Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, said Smith was choosing “divisive politics” and is jeopardizing 45 projects, including four in Alberta that are currently being assessed, representing billions of dollars and hundreds of potential jobs.  

“Premier Smith knows full well that our government conducted significant consultations with Alberta as part of that process, as well as industry, Indigenous groups and other provinces,” the statement said.

“We want to ensure as much clarity, certainty, and predictability as possible for projects, which premier Smith threatens with her reckless political games.”

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Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said businesses need clarity and said the federal government after the Supreme Court of Canada ruling should have gone to stakeholders and the province and worked on creating frameworks that worked.

“Citizens need good environmental impact legislation from the federal government,” Nenshi said. “We need a province that’s willing to play ball and actually make a deal, instead of just constantly suing against what they don’t want, instead of actually saying what they do want.”

— With files from Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Press

ctran@postmedia.com

X: @kccindytran

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