Canada Embraces Conflicting Climate Priorities

Canada continued its efforts to diversify its economy and create a new role for itself as a global leader in energy resources this week with its announcement of the country's largest carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility near Clive, Alberta. However, an additional under-the-radar announcement about environmental approvals for major projects has drawn harsh criticism from environmental advocates.

On September 9, 2026, the government announced a partnership with the Alberta government and Enhance Energy for the construction of the Origins CCS Hub, which is expected to be the largest CCS facility in Canada and among the largest in the world, with the capacity to store as much as 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually.

The facility will support Alberta's industrial and resource sectors, including oil and gas, petrochemicals, cement, and power generation. The government said that the facility will benefit from Enhance Energy's experience operating an existing CCS project, which has stored more than 9 million tonnes of CO2 since 2020, generated over $600 million in economic activity, and supported the creation of 50,000 jobs.

In the announcement, Alberta Minister of Energy and Minerals Brian Jean said that the facility will support Alberta's global leadership in CCS technology.

“The Enhance Energy Hub will help ensure Alberta produces the most responsible oil and gas in the world while creating investment and jobs in rural Alberta. This project will play a key role in driving our economy forward,” said Jean.

Quietly Playing Another Card

On the same day it announced the CCS facility, the government announced amendments to the Physical Activities Regulations (Project List) under the Impact Assessment Act (IAA). According to the announcement, the amendments will “streamline the review process for certain projects, including pipelines, new international power lines and designated interprovincial power lines, and certain offshore renewable energy projects, while maintaining robust environmental protections and upholding the rights of Indigenous Peoples.”

The amendments stipulate that certain major projects will no longer be subject to assessments, including environmental impact assessments, under the IAA. Instead, projects like interprovincial and international pipelines, international and designated interprovincial power lines, and offshore renewable energy projects not regulated by offshore regulators will be reviewed by the Canada Energy Regulator (CER). Other projects, including in situ oil sands extraction facilities and fossil fuel-fired power generating facilities, will be removed from the Project List to align with the IAA. The government claims that this will ensure that federal impact assessments focus on major projects with the greatest potential to cause adverse effects.

Environmental Advocates Cry Foul

The government claimed that the CER is well placed to conduct environmental impact assessments that consider environmental, socioeconomic, and Indigenous concerns, and that the move is consistent with Canada's climate commitments and its economic prosperity goals.

However, Julia Levin, associate director of national climate at Environmental Defence, noted in a press release that although the amendment was published in the Canada Gazette on September 3, 2026, without an announcement, the government issued a press release on September 9 only after Environmental Defence had released a statement critical of the government's actions.

“This latest attack on Canada's hard-fought environmental rules came in the form of a quiet posting in the Canada Gazette which announced that some of the country's most polluting projects will no longer be reviewed under the country's Impact Assessment Act,” said Levin. “This includes the country's largest carbon bombs: oil and gas pipelines (including in national parks), in situ oil sands extraction and fossil gas plants. There was no forewarning of this decision. No press release. No press conference.”

In a LinkedIn post, environmental law and policy specialist Victoria Goodday noted that the government's announcement was unclear and potentially manipulative because it was not transparent about the changes to reviews for oil-sands facilities and power-generation facilities.

“Let it be clear: large-scale in situ oil sands facilities and fossil fuel-fired power generating facilities are not being shifted to Canada Energy Regulator review. They're being removed from federal impact assessment entirely, full stop.”

Levin said that despite the government's insistence to the contrary, the CER is a politically appointed body that does not have the depth of environmental expertise to conduct effective impact assessments on such projects, and that only the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada can conduct credible assessments.

The government's amendments follow last week's quiet release of a climate report depicting a potentially bleak future for Canada because of climate change. Environmental advocates have criticized the government for seemingly avoiding delicate issues of environmental impacts while pursuing enhanced fossil-fuel production in the pursuit of economic benefits. New research from the Canadian Climate Institute also showed that Canada's new policies supporting fossil fuel development, including the recent memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Alberta, have set Canada's emissions trajectory back by 20 years, meaning Canada is not on track to meet its 2030 emissions targets until at least 2050.