“We congratulate Ontario on its victory against the largely unconstitutional federal Impact Assessment Act. For more than two years, Ottawa has stood in the way of Ontario’s Highway 413 project, forcing that province to fight for its constitutional rights to manage and develop its resources.
“Alberta strongly supported the Ontario government’s pursuit of a judicial review in the Federal Court of Canada to affirm that the Impact Assessment Act is unconstitutional. Today’s judgment from the Federal Court relies on the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Impact Assessment Act Reference, which was commenced by Alberta and in which the Supreme Court determined that the act was largely unconstitutional. The Federal Court noted that it should give effect to that decision by finding the federal minister of environment and climate change acted beyond his constitutional jurisdiction when designating the Highway 413 project in May 2021.
“We hope this will serve as yet another lesson for the federal government. It must abandon its federal impact assessment scheme and stop scaring away investment and causing unnecessary chaos and confusion across the country.
“The federal government has signalled that it intends to table amendments to the unconstitutional legislation this spring but has refused to share any specific information with Alberta. This is not meaningful engagement. It’s time for the federal government to listen to the Constitution and Canadians.
“Alberta will stand up to Ottawa as many times as it takes until the federal government abandons its attempts to resurrect this unconstitutional act. We want to see investment grow across this country, not have it driven away by unbalanced, unpredictable new rules for large-scale infrastructure projects.”