Alberta has signed a memorandum of understanding with Manitoba and Saskatchewan to collaborate on joint economic corridors projects to boost economic growth in Western Canada.
Transportation ministers from the three provinces announced the agreement from Edmonton on Tuesday morning.
Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors Minister Devin Dreeshen said the announcement takes existing agreements “to the next level.”
“This is looking specifically, again, at economic corridors and to try to harmonize the regulations and to make sure that if a project has a scope outside of a province, and it goes across the country, that we actually can have the regulatory process set up,” he said.
“This advances further agreements, but it’s very specific for an economic corridor to make sure that we can have these big nation building projects built again in Canada, which we haven’t seen for quite some time,” he continued.
Saskatchewan Highways Minister Jeremy Cockrill said the agreement commits the provinces to supporting the movement of people and goods, finding joint solutions, and improving highways and rail networks across our provinces.
“We will encourage our federal partners to play their part in supporting infrastructure and protecting the supply chains in this country,” he said.
Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Doyle Piwniuk said the provinces want to show they’re open for business and industry despite challenges.
“We can’t stay isolated,” he said. “We need to make sure that business service flow rate across prairie provinces and into your international markets such as Europe and Asia.”
Dreeshen said the provinces want to ensure industry has a level playing field to find investment and create jobs while the government creates a seamless regulatory process that operates at the speed of businesses. He said the agreement could bolster pipeline projects, new rail lines, utility lines, and telecommunication lines.
“The whole intent of this MOU is to make sure that we have that speed of business, that level playing field for industry, regardless of the type of project in an economic corridor,” Dreeshen said.
He also lamented the federal government’s Bill C-69, the Impact Assessment Act (IAA), which he said is a concern for all prairie provinces.
Last month, provincial government lawyers made their case for upholding a lower court ruling that the IAA is unconstitutional.
The act was adopted to “establish a federal environmental assessment process to safeguard against adverse environmental effects in relation to matters within federal jurisdiction,” the attorney general of Canada stated in written legal arguments to the Supreme Court.
Alberta lawyer Bruce Mellett said the province already does comprehensive reviews of projects, but now Ottawa is imposing new rules which prioritize federal policies. Manitoba lawyer Charles Murray argued “what we don’t need is one party always holding the trump card.”
Dreeshen said cancelled projects are costing the country “billions of dollars” and “thousands of jobs.” He also said the three provinces are reaching out to BC, Quebec, and Ontario.
“In a perfect world, we would have all the provinces coming together realizing that economic corridors make sense.”
