Canada Scales Back Regulatory Reviews of Energy Projects

By Paul Vieira

OTTAWA--Canada says proposed oil-and-gas pipelines, natural-gas plants and electricity-transmission lines would no longer be subject to a second assessment under a scheme introduced by former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Those potential projects, among others, would still be subject to scrutiny from the main federal energy regulator. The Canada Energy Regulator, officials said, takes into account a project's impact on the environment and health, and ensures the proponent is respecting the rights of affected indigenous communities.

The decision was published Wednesday in the government's official newspaper, the Canada Gazette, and reflects the latest effort by Prime Minister Mark Carney to reduce delays in the project-approval process and create a regulatory system in which projects face a single review on a time-limited basis. Carney is pushing for the construction of new trade corridors and the development of commodity-based projects as a means to build economic resiliency and reduce its dependence on trade with the U.S. as a major source of growth.

Changes to the environmental-assessment process, introduced by Trudeau last decade, were criticized by the energy sector, business groups and some think tanks as an unnecessary duplication of regulatory work, and a turn off for investors looking to capitalize on Canada's vast oil-and-gas resources. In the fall of 2023, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that elements of Trudeau's assessment process were unconstitutional because they intruded on the exclusive rights of the country's provinces to manage their natural resources.

The Trudeau administration said one of the goals of its assessment-review policy was to ensure Canada was on track to reduce carbon emissions and meet a target of net-zero carbon output by 2050.

"The preference has been to have a much narrower scope of what projects the federal government says it will assess. Today they made moves to streamline exactly that," said Heather Exner-Pirot, director energy and environmental research at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank.

According to the regulations in the Gazette, certain projects would no longer be subject to an impact-assessment review. Among them are pipelines; electricity transmission lines; offshore renewable energy projects; natural-gas generating plants; and oil-sands production.

The amended regulations "will improve the efficiency of review processes for major projects, while generating net cost savings for project proponents and the federal government," the Gazette said. The amendments remove project types "that have limited impacts within federal jurisdiction based on implementation experience," and are "adequately managed by other federal regimes."

Write to Paul Vieira at paul.vieira@wsj.com

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September 09, 2026 10:35 ET (14:35 GMT)