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The Trudeau government’s latest efforts to “modernize” the NEB largely ignore the fact that the events associated with Energy East were in large part due to regulatory-process blunders by the NEB while current and future circumstances associated with Kinder Morgan have the potential to contribute to a constitutional crisis in Canada.

The Trudeau government asserts that the new Canadian Energy Regulator (CER) it plans to create and put in charge of project approvals, in place of the NEB, will help to restore investor confidence, rebuild public trust and advance Indigenous reconciliation while advancing “good projects” to ensure energy resources get to markets responsibly. The announcement immediately and seriously undermined the regulatory authority of the NEB, previously affirmed by the Supreme Court, while providing only vague uncertainties and undefined responsibilities, including the future of appointments, roles and responsibilities of previously independent National Energy Board members and staff.

The new proposed legislation will do little to assuage demands from a host of jurisdictions, from provinces to municipalities, who will continue to presume, if not demand, a final say in the regulation of Canadian energy developments. The consequential upset from the proposed new legislation will continue to disrupt and erode the regulatory climate in Canada while reducing the pre-eminence of the regulatory powers of the NEB or the new, proposed CER. These regulatory changes will continue to pose fundamental uncertainties and will make even more problematic effective and efficient determinations of energy projects judged to be in the national interest. Regrettably, the federal government’s intentions to restore public confidence in the NEB by modernizing it have now been eclipsed by far more pressing concerns for the economy, the national interest and, perhaps, the ability of the Canadian energy sector to thrive in, or to survive, such disparate, concerted regulatory assaults from so many sectors.

Canadians would be justified in questioning whether the federal government in its attempts to create a “more robust, transparent and inclusive process” to more closely align with its energy and climate policies have actually increased the regulatory uncertainties that have done so much to drive crucial energy investment out of Canada.

Ron Wallace has served on federal, provincial and territorial energy and environmental regulators and advisory boards. He has written extensively on the environment, national defence and the circumpolar Arctic.