Backlash over 'Building Canada Strong' Act: Environmental groups call for changes

By Global News

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Environment groups are blasting the Liberal government's sweeping economic bill, warning the new "Building Canada Strong" act erodes protections to speed up approvals for major projects. The federal government insists protections won't be bypassed, with a spokesperson for the environment minister saying, “The scope of environmental assessments remains the same," and "any project will continue to be subject to legally binding conditions and mitigation measures." Groups like Ecojustice aren't convinced that can happen under the government's targeted approval timeline of less than a year. Ecojustice Nature Director Margot Venton says, “I think in Canada we have countless examples of where we have harmed communities over the long term, by not protecting the ecosystems that are the foundation of a lot of our economies.” Advocacy groups are calling for changes to be made to the bill to ensure economic diversification doesn't come at an environmental cost. Heidi Petracek reports. For m

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