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Under the plan, provincial environmental processes will be substituted or considered equivalent to federal reviews so long as they meet the standards set out in the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.

The provincial rules will also be considered equivalent to federal Fisheries Act regulations as long as they meet or exceed Canadian standards, while the provinces, National Energy Board and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission will be authorized to grant approvals under the federal Fisheries Act.

“With scarce resources, it is counter-productive to have the federal government completing separate reviews of the same project,” Oliver added, while announcing the changes at a Toronto business that provides products for oil and gas pipelines.

“These changes make it clear that powerful oil interests are running the show”

Environmental groups said the changes will erode ecological protection in Canada and effectively provide large oil and gas companies free rein on major projects.

“These changes make it clear that powerful oil interests are running the show, with the federal government bending over backwards to do their bidding,” Gillian McEachern of Environmental Defence said in a statement.

“It won’t be much comfort to people dealing with a dangerous oil spill in their backyard that the company will get a slap on the wrist when government could have prevented the problem in the first place with a real assessment of the risks.”