By Sumayya
OTTAWA — More than 50 of Canada’s top scientists and experts are warning that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s main new law, which is meant to speed up big construction projects, must be changed. They say that if it is not changed, the federal government is risking “costly and potentially irreversible harm” (damage that can never be fixed) to the environment.
In an open letter published on Thursday, 56 fellows from the Royal Society of Canada outlined six specific changes (amendments) that they say must be made to Bill C-39, also known as the Building Canada Strong Act.
The scientific experts wrote that while they agree with the bill’s main goal of making project reviews faster, there are several parts (clauses) in the law that need to be changed or completely removed. They say these changes are necessary for the government to keep its promise to protect at-risk animals, delicate nature areas, natural resources, and human health.
“Bill C-39, as drafted, really puts aside a lot of the environmental regulations and laws that we have in place in Canada to protect nature and protect our waters, protect our air,” said Dr. Sarah Otto in an interview with CTV News.
Otto, who is one of the people who signed the letter and a zoology professor at the University of British Columbia, said the fast speed at which the bill is moving was the main reason the group came together over the past week to write the letter. The letter has since been sent as an official summary to key politicians in parliament.
“These harms, oftentimes can’t be fixed, and so we’re really borrowing from the natural resources of future generations to pay for our economic growth right now,” she said.
While the open letter was signed by members of the Royal Society, a spokesperson told CTV News that the organization itself was not involved in planning or setting it up.
“We are proud to be an organization that brings together many of Canada’s leading scholars, and we support our members in drawing on their expertise to contribute to important public discussions and work toward better outcomes for Canada,” said Royal Society of Canada President Françoise Baylis in an emailed statement.
Alarms sounded, but bill speeding ahead
This massive combined (omnibus) law proposes to speed up the official approval process for big energy and infrastructure projects while also dealing with labor disagreements. It was introduced on the very first day of the parliament’s fall meetings. Three weeks later, it passed its first major vote in parliament.
When the government first presented the bill, they praised it in a press release as “the most comprehensive and ambitious reform to Canada’s ability to get big things built in a generation.”
Even though senior government officials and federal ministers claim that the bill protects environmental rules and Indigenous rights, there has been a lot of pushback.
“That’s not what this bill does,” Otto said. “It does not maintain our environmental standards. It lowers them, sidesteps them, or allows ministers to dismiss the conditions that are imposed on projects to make sure that they don’t damage and harm our environment.”
In the days after Bill C-39 was introduced, climate activists took their protests directly to Parliament Hill. This resulted in several people, including elderly citizens, being arrested for trespassing.
“The prime minister is rightly considering how do we balance our books, how do we make sure people are employed and that is really important across this country. But there’s also environmental books, our natural heritage, what sustains us and the species that we share this country with,” said Otto. “Those are the environmental books, and I don’t think those are being balanced.”
Labor groups have also raised warnings about changes to the Canada Labour Code rules regarding union negotiations (collective bargaining) built into the bill. They say these rules will have bad results for workers and take away their right to go on strike.
However, business and industry groups have welcomed the law package. The bill also proposes to create special zones of “national interest” and promises that federal reviews of new projects will take no longer than one year under a new, simplified process.
So far, it has mostly been these pro-business and manufacturing voices that have been allowed to speak about the bill in front of the special committee set up to study the law on a very fast timeline. Otto said the experts behind the letter have asked to speak as witnesses, but they have not been invited yet.
MP panel studying C-39 lacks opposition
The bill has been sent to a specially made House Committee where Members of Parliament (MPs) will look exclusively at this single law. This is different from regular standing committees, which have to handle many different bills and studies at the same time.
Because the law covers different topics, creating a dedicated committee instead of sending it to the labor, environment, finance, or energy committees seems to be an effort by the government to choose the easiest path with the least resistance.
Out of the 12 members chosen to study the law, 11 of them have already voted in favor of it. The only MP who voted against the law during the second reading is Bloc Quebecois MP Gabriel Ste-Marie. Both the Liberal and Conservative parties are fully supporting the bill.
Neither Green Party MP Elizabeth May nor any NDP MPs were invited to join the committee, even though they asked for an exception that would let them participate without having official party status on the panel.
“The only vehicle open to us as parliamentarians is to amend the bill, but that process is severely limited,” said NDP Parliamentary Leader Don Davies in an interview with CTV News.
“The committee stage is the only stage of the process where Canadians get to weigh in… and it’s a very vital part because very often, through listening to Canadians, you understand the flaws of the bill, and that can often form the basis for amending it to improving it.”
However, in this situation, the Liberals have limited the amount of time allowed to hear from outside witnesses to just eight hours. Davies said the clear conclusion from this decision is that Carney is not interested in hearing from people who disagree.
“Carney has called this legislation the most consequential legislation of this Parliament… then Parliament should take its time,” Davies said. “We should open the doors to hear from the full range of Canadians, from environmentalists to Indigenous people to labor groups to business groups to everybody who’s affected to make sure we get it right.”
He explained that failing to do this creates a massive risk that the government’s goal—building big things faster—will become impossible because of a lack of public support, future court battles, or protests.
“That’s no way to govern, and I think it’ll backfire on the government,” Davies stated.
According to the official schedule that the MPs agreed on, any proposed changes to Bill C-39 must be given to the committee clerk by 5 p.m. ET on November 4, and a line-by-line review will happen in the middle of the month.
CTV News asked the office of Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature Julie Dabrusin for a comment on the scientists’ worries and the complaints about the committee process.
In an emailed reply, Dabrusin’s office repeated that Bill C-39 will not lower environmental rules.
“The scope of environmental assessments remains the same and will continue to consider a broad set of factors, including environmental, health and social effects, as well as Indigenous and traditional knowledge. Any project will continue to be subject to legally-binding conditions and mitigation measures,” said her press secretary, Amy Falkner.
Falkner also stated that the government has been open to getting public feedback about the law “and are committed to doing so as bill C-39 moves through Parliament.”
