CARNEY GOVERNMENT DELAYS ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW OVERHAUL AFTER WIDESPREAD BACKLASH

The federal government backed off plans to introduce sweeping legislative changes to major project environmental reviews before the House rises for summer, extending the public consultation period and pushing legislation to the fall sitting. The original consultation period was set to end this week, and the government had been widely expected to table the legislation on Monday, before the House rises for the summer. The Globe and Mail

Ottawa released two discussion papers last month which proposed, among other things, approving major projects before they have been reviewed and exempting certain projects from laws meant to protect species at risk. The papers also proposed taking responsibility for reviewing pipelines, transmission lines, and offshore renewable energy projects away from the Impact Assessment Agency and handing it to the Canada Energy Regulator. The federal government has responded to “feedback from thousands” by postponing the sweeping rollbacks and extending the comment period from June 7 to July 22 — a decision that derails the government’s plan to table legislation as soon as the week of June 8. Global News + 2

The last-minute decision to delay is a rare move from Carney’s government, which has prioritized speed in its first year in office and has already repealed or overhauled a raft of climate-change and environment policies from the Trudeau era. Environment groups had mobilized aggressively. Critics pointed to the endangered southern resident whales off the B.C. coast as a species which would be put at risk under the legislation, particularly as Ottawa and Alberta move to build an oil pipeline to the West Coast. The Globe and MailNational Observer

Why it matters: The retreat signals that the Carney government’s capacity to steamroll environmental rollbacks ahead of a summer recess has limits — at least when organized civil society and Indigenous groups mobilize at scale within a compressed consultation window. The delay also means the legislation will arrive in the fall session alongside the federal budget, the USMCA review developments, and the pipeline file — a congested political calendar that will test the government’s management capacity and caucus cohesion.