Federal reforms could affect Hydro: Carr

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This article was published 09/02/2018 (3180 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — This week’s sweeping reform of how Ottawa regulates energy projects would help future projects aimed at exporting Manitoba’s hydroelectricity, federal Energy Minister Jim Carr said.

“If Manitoba Hydro moves electricity across provincial lines, or across international lines, then there is a role for the federal regulator,” Carr said Friday.

His comments came a day after he co-launched an overhaul of the federal agencies that green-light projects based on environmental concerns and local feedback.

The Winnipeg MP said the bill aims to balance economic development with those goals, with an emphasis on adequately consulting Indigenous groups. The ultimate goal is getting pipelines and other projects passed smoothly to shore up the national economy.

“It’s of interest to Manitobans as Canadians,” Carr said, noting that oil and gas companies are interested in the oil and gas reserves in the province’s southwest flank.

The 400-page bill is likely to face intense scrutiny in Parliament. Initial responses had environmental groups and the NDP saying the bill didn’t go far enough for the environment and local Indigenous groups.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives and some industry groups feared gridlock for pipelines.

“When it comes time to make multibillion-dollar decisions on major resource projects, there are always going to be some people who are unhappy,” Carr said. “You don’t write the policy to people who won’t accept anything other than an extreme view; you write policy for most Canadians who look for the reasonable one.”

Carr said views which people “believe passionately” are largely behind British Columbia’s escalating spat with Alberta over the Trans Mountain pipeline project, which aims to increase shipments of diluted oilsands bitumen to the Pacific coast.

Though the federal government regulates inter-provincial trade, B.C. had tried adding more regulations onto the projects, prompting outcry from the Alberta government, which announced a boycott of B.C. wine this week.

Carr said Ottawa would side with Manitoba if it found a hydro-exporting project to be in the national interest, but then came across opposition from Nunavut, Saskatchewan, Ontario or the U.S.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca