Photo: Adrian Wyld The Canadian Press Federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault
It is not up to the proponents of a mega-project to capture and store carbon to decide whether they are exempt from any federal environmental assessment, Minister Steven Guilbeault has warned.
“The law applies whether they consider it applies [to their project] or not. It's not up to the province to determine that or the companies,” Canada's federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change said Wednesday.
Mr. Guilbeault was responding to the revelations in Devoir that Canada’s largest greenhouse gas capture and storage project, designed to reduce the carbon footprint of the oil sands industry, will not be subject to any provincial environmental impact assessment in Alberta.
Pathways Alliance, a major oil industry lobby and the project’s promoter, also told Devoir that “a federal impact assessment is not required” for its facility, which is expected to bury up to 22 million tonnes of greenhouse gases underground by the end of the decade.
Not so fast, replied Minister Steven Guilbeault. According to him, it is still possible that his government will decide to get involved and order its own environmental assessment.
“There has not been a determination yet. As for a possible federal assessment, someone has to make a request to the [Impact Assessment of Canada (IAAC)] Agency, and the agency must then make a recommendation to the minister, that is to say me.”
IAAC had told Devoir that carbon capture and storage facilities “are not explicitly described” in the list of industrial projects that must go through this process. Even the promoter plans to build an entire pipeline network, this one would not cross a provincial border, which would be likely to involve the federal government.
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A “catastrophe,” announces the Bloc
“I understand that they want a fast track for the environmental assessment. But the catastrophe, in my opinion, is its financing,” criticizes Bloc Québécois MP Mario Simard.
He protests that the government could financially support this project from the $80 billion dedicated to clean technologies announced in the 2023 budget. A little over 15% of this sum, or $12.5 billion, is dedicated to carbon capture, use and storage by the industry.
Thanks to this subsidized project, oil companies could increase their production while respecting the emissions cap that Ottawa plans to impose, fears the Bloc. “That means that Quebec and Canadian taxpayers will be the ones paying for the emissions cap ?,” asks Mario Simard.
During a parliamentary committee earlier this month, Canada's Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said that the New Ways Alliance project could benefit from federal tax credits for green technologies. According to her, this project could “contribute to national unity.”
A financial contribution to the New Ways Alliance does not represent a subsidy to the fossil fuel industry, according to her.
Headwind at COP29
Furthermore, Minister Steven Guilbeault said he was “concerned” to see that the work of the United Nations climate conference (COP29) is not progressing as planned. Discussions are entering a critical phase on Wednesday, as a draft agreement sets aside the objective of gradually abandoning fossil fuels. This had been expected at the previous meeting, at COP28 in Dubai.
“The major oil-producing countries do not agree that we must free ourselves from our dependence on fossil fuels. This is not the case in Canada, we supported this last year in Dubai, we continue to support it.”
Minister Guilbeault participated in person in the launch of the international conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, but had to leave to return to Ottawa this week, as no official opposition MPs wanted to accompany her on her mission. The Canadian Parliament has been paralyzed since September, coupled with the imminent threat of an election, a situation that prevents Liberal MPs from being absent.
With Alexandre Shields