Federal Tories gut environmental assessments with sneaky changes: critics

OTTAWA - Environmental groups and opposition politicians say the federal Conservatives are trying to gut environmental assessment laws by sneaking in new rules in budget legislation.

"This is a big step backward about 20 years," John Bennett of the Sierra Club said Wednesday.

Budget legislation introduced in the House this week would give the environment minister the power to divide a large project up into smaller components for the purpose of studying its environmental impact.

"The minister may ... determine that the scope of the project in relation to which an environmental assessment is to be conducted is limited to one or more components of that project," says the legislation.

That means the environment minister would have the power to determine which aspects of a proposal would be assessed. That would make it harder to consider the combined effects of one megaproject or several large projects in one area such as Alberta's oilsands.

"What they're trying to do is take away the big picture," said Bennett.

Additional Excerpt:

Bennett said the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act is up for review later this spring. He said if the Tories want to change the legislation, that would be the time to try.

"What are they trying to hide?"

He said tucking the changes into the budget amounts to "bullying" the environment since opposition parties are unlikely to defeat the bill and cause an election.