FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 16, 2023

Trudeau Government Urged to Respect Court Decision on Bill C-69, "No More Pipelines" Act

Ottawa – The Supreme Court of Canada has deemed Bill C-69, the Impact Assessment Act, largely unconstitutional in a 5-2 ruling.

In the majority opinion, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada Richard Wagner, writes that the parts of the scheme that involve “designated projects” are deemed unconstitutional.  Those parts of the act are too broad and interfere with provincial jurisdiction. According to Wagner “"In my view, Parliament has plainly overstepped its constitutional competence in enacting this designated projects scheme."

Bill C-69 was enacted by the Trudeau Government in 2019 and allowed for federal regulators to consider the potential environmental and social impacts of various resource and infrastructure projects. It was dubbed the “no more pipelines” bill by many in the energy industry since Bill C-69 was designed to ensure major construction projects had a “social license” to operate. In other words, required public consultations to include considerations such as climate change, gender, and other issues. 

Dan McTeague, President of Canadians for Affordable Energy reacted to the announcement by the Supreme Court of Canada that stuck down Trudeau’s “no more pipelines” act saying, “This is a huge victory for energy affordability in Canada. Bill C-69 was designed by the Trudeau Liberals to make pipeline approvals and construction so burdensome and costly; they simply could not be built.”

“The Supreme Court of Canada made the right call,” McTeague added. "This is a positive step that will hopefully allow more pipelines to the be built in Canada. At a time of crushing inflation and rising costs, we need our oil to get to world markets and the revenue that will bring to the Canadian economy. I urge the Trudeau government to respect this ruling and the spirit in which it was given. The Trudeau government needs to respect provincial jurisdiction and allow for oil and gas development.”

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For media inquiries, please contact Dan McTeague at [email protected]