Notley says new energy assessment bill conflicts with purchase of pipeline

OTTAWA — Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says it makes no sense for Ottawa to have spent $4.5 billion to buy the Trans Mountain pipeline while it is pushing legislation she says will prevent most future energy projects from being built

Notley is in Ottawa this morning giving the Senate her take on Bill C-69, overhauling the way energy projects are assessed for environmental and economic impacts.

She says the bill needs major amendments including setting harder limits on the time it can take to do a review, and ensuring the reviews take into consideration the number of jobs a project will produce.

She also wants most new Alberta energy projects exempted from the bill because of existing provincial review processes and her government’s climate change policies.

Notley does say the review system the bill replaces is no better but also that swapping one broken system for another makes no sense.

The Senate is being heavily lobbied on this legislation, with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers saying more than 40,000 letters have been sent to individual senators asking them to amend the bill.

The Canadian Press