Carney can't cut the public service and speed up major project approvals at the same time | Opinion

Prime Minister Mark Carney's government introduced Bill C-39 with the goal of speeding up major project approvals. Photo by CHRISTOPHER KATSAROV /POOL/AFP via Getty Images

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The Carney government wants to get major resource and infrastructure projects approved faster.

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In recent weeks, the government introduced Bill C-39, the Building Canada Strong Act, which would accelerate major-project reviews and give federal regulators additional responsibilities.

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But it’s also planning to cut nearly 1,400 full-time-equivalent positions from two departments responsible for protecting Canada’s environment — Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. These staffing reductions threaten the very scientific capacity that major-project reviews depend on.

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So, the plan is to get more science done with fewer people to do it.

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That’s not an efficiency strategy. It’s a contradiction the government has yet to explain.

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It can’t have it both ways.

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Environmental assessments aren’t paperwork that can be rushed through. They involve studying what a mine might do to groundwater, how a pipeline could affect a fish habitat or what an industrial project could mean for surrounding communities.

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Scientists have to gather evidence, test assumptions, investigate risks and determine what protections are necessary. Sometimes they discover something nobody anticipated. Sometimes they need more data. And sometimes they must return to the field during another season to compare.

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None of that work disappears because a politician sets a shorter deadline.

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Yet Bill C-39 would accelerate reviews while shifting additional assessment responsibilities to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and the Canada Energy Regulator.

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These are complex projects, with potentially serious consequences for public health, safety and the environment. The people reviewing them need specialized expertise, independent professional judgment and enough time to get the science right.

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What they don’t need is another impossible workload.

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Public servants at these regulators are already dealing with staffing shortages and recruitment challenges. When experienced scientists leave, their knowledge doesn’t automatically transfer to whoever inherits their files.

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And when departments lose capacity, it’s not just assessments that suffer. It’s the monitoring, research and institutional knowledge that help experts recognize problems before they become disasters.

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The government insists that Bill C-39 will maintain Canada’s environmental standards. At the same time, it’s proposing to make the cost of protecting endangered species and fish habitat an explicit consideration when setting safeguards.

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Weakening the rules is only half the concern, as the government is also cutting the jobs of the people responsible for enforcing them. An assessment completed on time means little if experts weren’t given the resources to examine the evidence properly. And a faster approval is no achievement if the public cannot trust the work behind it.