Conservatives' energy corridor proposal has 'missing pieces,' says energy expert

The federal Conservatives' election promise to speed along infrastructure projects by designating a corridor where they'd be pre-approved has many "missing pieces" and could make building them more complicated, an energy expert said Monday.

The Tories, if elected on April 28, would require all orders of government to approve pipelines, power lines, railways and other projects within a certain zone, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said in Saint John, N.B.

He said companies don't have an incentive to build pipelines in Canada "even as pipeline construction is booming all over the world." Regulatory hurdles that cause delays have been cited as investment risks for these kinds of projects.

Andrew Leach, who teaches economics and law at the University of Alberta, said it would be reasonable for the federal government to give the go-ahead in advance to a specific oil pipeline or other project it deemed to be urgently in the national interest.

But leaving it so open-ended raises several questions, he said.

For instance, what happens if multiple companies want to build the same type of project — an oil pipeline, say — within the federal corridor?

"How do you decide who gets to build it? Is there a (request for proposals) process? Is it a reverse auction? So who gets to do what?"

Poilievre said there would be consultations and environmental research to determine the best path for the corridor, and the government would publish standards and specifications the projects would have to meet.

"Then the permits would be pre-published online and legally binding," Poilievre said. "The government would not have the legal right to reverse course and change its mind."

Different types of projects carry different types of risks, and Canadians who may be receptive to having one type in their community may oppose another.

"Is the expectation that then there wouldn't be a regulatory process for that pipeline, that landowners affected along this corridor would not have a say in that?" said Leach, noting that landowners are often keenly interested in granular details like where compression stations are located.

"I think you have a really hard time getting across your thresholds for adequate consultation there."

Poilievre said First Nations approval would be secured before any money is spent.

But Leach wondered how the constitutional duty to consult can be upheld if there's no detailed application available before a specific project is green-lit.

"It can't just be about a hypothetical project, and you can't assess the degree to which rights would be infringed without knowing what the project is," said Leach.

Charlie Hatt, the climate director for environmental law group Ecojustice, said a corridor approach can't sacrifice the climate or disregard local concerns.

"Doing so raises constitutional issues and other legal risks."

Poilievre's campaign announcement comes as a new round of U.S. tariffs looms. President Donald Trump has said he intends to impose "reciprocal" tariffs on Wednesday, and the White House isn't confirming whether economy-wide tariffs against Canada and Mexico linked to fentanyl will also take effect that day. A 25 per cent levy on automobiles is to come on Thursday.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney, last week, promised a Trade Diversification Corridor Fund that would "accelerate nation-building projects at ports, railroads, inland terminals, airports and highways" to open up new trade routes.

"Anything that will enable us to get our products to other markets that are not the U.S. will be a benefit to Canada long-term," said Adam Legge, president of the Business Council of Alberta.

Pre-approving projects is only beneficial if they're insulated from future challenges, said Legge.

"If it is done properly, it can really decrease the uncertainty of a project," he said.

"Right now, the process is fraught with political interference such that a minister … can cancel a project even after it's successfully been granted approval through the regulatory process."

The Northern Gateway pipeline to the northern B.C. coast and the Energy East pipeline to the East Coast were both killed after years of regulatory work.

More than a decade passed between the initial regulatory application to expand the Trans Mountain oil pipeline to the B.C. Lower Mainland and its startup last May. In that time its cost ballooned from $5.4 billion to $34 billion.

The tariff turmoil has led to a renewed push for new infrastructure projects that bolster Canada's sovereignty, and Legge wants the pressure to keep up.

"I really hope that if anything were to die down on the tariff side that we as a country don't go back to sleep and say, 'dodged that bullet, we're all OK now,"' he said.

"These are things that we should have been doing over the past 10 years about ensuring our own resilience and getting our products to market."