The Liberals were told to respect provincial jurisdiction, but their update to the federal environmental assessment regime doesn't

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On Thursday, the Alberta government announced that it has asked the Alberta Court of Appeal to provide an opinion on whether the newly amended federal Impact Assessment Act (IAA) is constitutional. The problem? The things that rendered much of the act unconstitutional, which had been pointed out by the Supreme Court last fall, were never addressed.

The flaw that tainted IAA 1.0 was one of jurisdictional blindness: the law didn’t keep the feds in their own lane, and instead gave Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault the ability to veto just about any infrastructure project he likes — even in-province pipelines and roads, as well as gravel pits and mines, which are all within provincial domain.

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IAA 1.0 inserted a federal stake into these provincial projects by making Ottawa the master of any process that has the potential for “effects within federal jurisdiction” — that is, anything that could affect fisheries, migratory birds, Indigenous people, cross-border pollution, etc.

IAA 2.0 is about the same, but instead of mere........

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