After ‘feedback from thousands,’ Carney government slows down sweeping environmental changes

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The Carney government is slowing down planned regulatory changes that angered First Nations and mobilized civil society organizations.

Stopping short of admitting they were moving too fast or too far, the government said that it would extend the public engagement period until July 22.

In a statement on Thursday the federal government said it “received valuable feedback from thousands of stakeholders, Indigenous groups and members of the public across the country, underscoring the importance of these issues to Canadians.”

It’s not unheard of for the government to extend consultations. 

CBC News was the first to report about the significant changes the Carney government was planning. Among the suite of measures were designating pre-approving development in certain “federal economic zones” and giving the federal cabinet limited power to exempt projects from the “jeopardy test” for species at risk.

The Assembly of First Nations called the proposed changes “not acceptable” and said they demonstrated “a pattern of exclusion.” On Wednesday, many of Canada’s environmental and conservation groups assembled on Parliament Hill to oppose the government’s proposal.

“By gutting the laws that guarantee fundamental environmental protections, this government will only be fast-tracking preventable — and in some cases irreversible — harms to communities and ecosystems,” said Kimberly Shearon the executive director of the environmental law charity Ecojustice, in a statement.  

Some, including Carney’s former cabinet minister Steven Guilbeault, said the government’s approach was beyond what Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper implemented. The Liberals under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau later reversed some of those measures.

The Carney government justified the changes by arguing Canada needs to fast-track nation-building projects that strengthen the economy and help diversify exports away from the U.S.

The government never said when it planned to introduce legislation. But had it stuck with the original plan to wrap up consultations on June 7, it could have tabled a bill before the House of Commons rose for the summer.

With a razor-thin majority government, the bill was all but certain to pass through Parliament. 

In Thursday’s statement, the government suggested it plans to introduce legislation after Parliament returns in September.