Swift reaction to new fed rules include support, criticism and concern

It didn’t take long for government officials, energy lobbyists and other commentators to react to the new natural resource development guidelines laid out by the Liberal Government.

Former National Energy Board Chair Gaeton Caron said the government has provided some clarity in terms of assessment timelines.

“The business people that I know they don’t like things taking longer, but what they hate even more is not knowing how long it’s going to take, now there is total clarity by the government,” he said. “The two ministers speaking today were very clear, they’re committed to finishing this in the case of Trans-Mountain by the end of December, that’s positive.”

“Their idea of the greenhouse gases assessed by the department of environment, because they acknowledged that the NEB has found in the past that it wasn’t relevant to their determination of a single pipeline, I think that’s brilliant.”

Conservative Energy Critic Candice Bergen said the announcement was another blow to Canada’s struggling economy.

“It’s undermining the NEB, it’s adding another layer and additional time to a process that I’m sure proponents were hoping was predictable,” she said. “It’s concerning because it’s taking the decision-making out of the hands of scientists and of the experts and putting it into the hands of the politicians.”

She added the timing couldn’t be worse considering the lower Canadian dollar and oil prices.

The company behind the Trans-Mountain project, Kinder Morgan, released a statement.

“While we have concerns about how this delay could impact the Project schedule, we support the principle that public confidence in the review process is crucial and look forward to working with the Government of Canada on how our years of work in the area of consultation will be considered,” the statement said. “We are confident we can demonstrate to Canadians, both the need for this Project and our commitment to building and operating this pipeline to the highest standards of environmental performance while supporting Aboriginal communities and providing lasting benefits for all Canadians.”

Alberta Environment Minister Shannon Phillips held a press conference shortly after the Liberal announcement and said she was pleased to hear no current projects have to go back to square one.

“Of course we are not interested in unnecessary delays, but the fact of the matter is, is that we have inherited a situation here that did not have the confidence of Canadians,” she said. “We have done our part to earn that confidence of Canadians and we have already seen some of the results of that.”

“Now the federal government is as this interim solution, attempting to have that honest conversatoin and ensure that voices are heard so that we can get to a decision on these matters.”

Wildrose Leader Brian Jean was much more critical.

“This announcement of more red tape and more delays, specifically around Energy East and Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, is disappointing,” he said. “Pipelines are the safest and least carbon-intensive way to move oil, plain and simple.”

“Albertans want assurances their governments are working to build pipelines in a timely manner, and this decision only creates further confusion and uncertainty.”

President and CEO of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers Tim McMillan said he’ll be focusing on what particular issue in the future.

“We will be looking very closely to, does this add time to the in-service date?” he said. “We know it does add some months to the approval process, but that’s what’s truly going to be important to the upstream producers.”