Numerous Saskatchewan residents, corporations and organizations voiced their opinion regarding Bill C-69 last week as the Senate committee made a two-day stop in Saskatoon.

The Senate committee hearings began April 8, 2019 in Vancouver BC and worked their way across the western provinces making stops in Calgary AB, Fort McMurray AB, Saskatoon Sk, finishing in Winnipeg MB on April 12, 2019.

A total of 21 people spoke during the Saskatoon hearings including representatives from the Saskatchewan Mining Association, Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association and the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce.

Cypress Hills-Grasslands MP, David Anderson, shared that he hopes it’s a positive sign that the committee scheduled a tour to hear from Western Canada, something he urged residents to demand from the Senate at the Oil Forum in Kindersley earlier this year.

Although he does feel the cross-country hearings are optimistic, he also said that the Independent Senators Group are not what their name claims them to be,“The Independent Senators have name that would have you think they’re operating on their own, but they actually operate under the direction of the Prime Ministers Office,” an office that Anderson believes, wants to see the bill passed as is. 

However, Anderson states the Senate now has to do what they should have done all along and throw the bill out.

“I just think it needs to die, I don’t think it’s possible to amend it in a way that it would actually work for us,” said Anderson.

Carlton Trail-Eagle Creek MP, Kelly Block, also weighed in on the situation stating, “The testimony heard by the Senate committee today (at the Saskatoon hearings) from so many industry experts shows clearly that Bill C-69 is a flawed piece of legislation that ignores the role of science and is a step backward for Canada’s natural resource development”.

Furthermore, Anderson shared how Canada’s environmental regulations are already among the highest in the world.

“Some people are under the assumption that we are not looking after the environment and we actually are. On all of our energy industries, our requirements, our standards are higher than they are virtually anywhere else in the world,” said Anderson.

He proclaimed that regulatory systems should be put into that structure in a way that will work, oppose to the regulations that are trying to be imposed by Bill C-69.

The Senate committee will resume hearings on April 23, 2019 in St. John’s NL, stopping in Halifax NS before ending the cross-country tour in Saint John NB on the 25th.

Anderson explained, after all the hearings are complete, the Senate will then decide if any amendments need to be made to the bill. Following the conclusion of that process, the bill will enter it’s third and final reading and if passed, will become law.

However, if no decision has been made on the bill by the end of Parliament in June, the bill would essentially die and would have to be reintroduced at the start of the new session.