{"id":16487,"date":"2023-05-03T10:25:18","date_gmt":"2023-05-03T17:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/project-progress-under-impact-assessment-act-remains-slow-report\/"},"modified":"2023-05-03T10:25:19","modified_gmt":"2023-05-03T17:25:19","slug":"project-progress-under-impact-assessment-act-remains-slow-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/project-progress-under-impact-assessment-act-remains-slow-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Project progress under Impact Assessment Act remains slow: Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

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CALGARY \u2014 <\/span>The approvals process for major projects in Canada continues to be slow and cumbersome under revamped environmental assessment legislation, according to a new report.<\/p>\n

The report, released by the Canada West Foundation \u2014 a Calgary-based think-tank \u2014 analyzed the 25 projects submitted under the federal Impact Assessment Act since it came into force three-and-a-half years ago. It found almost all of the projects submitted under the legislation remain in the first two phases of a four-part process.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s concerning, said report author Marla Orenstein, given that the Impact Assessment Act \u2014 formerly known as Bill C-69 \u2014 was intended to speed up the application process for major infrastructure and resource projects in the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese projects are complex and nuanced and have a great deal of impact\u2026that\u2019s why they wound up in the review process in the first place,\u201d Orenstein said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, it\u2019s not terribly encouraging that three-and-a-half years in, we\u2019re seeing projects just entering Phase 2 of a four-phase process. This doesn\u2019t seem to bode well for getting projects out the other side in a relatively tidy way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Impact Assessment Act\u2019s predecessor, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act of 2012, was also regularly criticized for its excessively long project approval timelines. Under that process, according to Canada West Foundation data, it took almost 3.5 years on average for projects to either receive approval or be terminated, with some projects taking over 10 years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Orenstein said while it\u2019s good Canada\u2019s regulatory process is robust and thorough, the federal government is facing a looming 2030 deadline to meet its own climate goals of reducing the country\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions by 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 levels.<\/span><\/p>\n

She added doing so will require large-scale and swift deployment of infrastructure \u2014 everything from carbon capture and storage technology to hydrogen facilities to electricity transmission lines.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a long time to plan projects and to build them,\u201d Orenstein said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf something takes eight years or six years just to get through a regulatory process, we have no hope of meeting those net-zero goals. It just can\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Liberal government announced in its federal budget in March that it will unveil a plan aimed at speeding up the permitting process for major\u00a0infrastructure\u00a0projects before the end of the year.<\/span><\/p>\n

The government also earmarked $1.3 billion in Budget 2023 to be used by the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, the Canada Energy Regulator and 10 other departments to improve regulatory efficiency.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think there is a real recognition from the federal government that this is a problem, and this is an obstacle to achieving their targets,\u201d said Mike Holden, chief economist of the Business Council of Alberta, which counts among its members some of the country\u2019s largest energy companies.<\/span><\/p>\n

For much of the past decade, Canada\u2019s energy sector has complained of lengthy permitting timelines and regulatory uncertainty slowing down everything from major oil pipeline projects to the development of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry in this country.<\/span><\/p>\n

Holden said it\u2019s difficult to measure the cost of regulatory delays and difficulties to the Canadian economy. Project proponents, investors, host communities, Indigenous groups and taxpayers all bear some of the financial burden.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Holden said perhaps the biggest economic damage comes in the form of opportunity loss, in that some companies may choose to not put projects forward at all rather than face an unclear regulatory process and timeline.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause right now they\u2019re being asked to invest sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars, and sometimes years and years of process, into an uncertain outcome at the end of the day,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s a tough ask for a lot of businesses.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Under the legislation, the Impact Assessment Agency is mandated to complete the first phase of the approvals process \u2013 the \u201cplanning\u201d phase \u2013 within 180 days of the project\u2019s application.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, that process may also be extended via \u201cstop clock\u201d requests by the project proponents. According to the Canada West Foundation, 80 per cent of the projects currently within the federal review process required a clock stoppage for reasons that included the pandemic, additional time for Indigenous consultation and ballooning requirements for information from proponents.<\/span><\/p>\n

This meant that though the Impact Assessment Agency consistently met its legislated deadline of 180 days, with clock stoppages it took projects an average of 332 days to complete Phase 1.<\/span><\/p>\n

Major projects that fall under the federal Impact Assessment Act include pipelines, mining, nuclear power facilities, liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities, transmission lines, oilsands mines and fossil-fuel powered electricity generation facilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

South of the border, companies have raised similar complaints about regulatory slowness and permitting delays. U.S. President Joe Biden has pledged to improve communication and co-operation among federal agencies to accelerate permitting and environmental reviews in that country.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2023 The Canadian Press<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n