Federal lawyers defended the government’s Impact Assessment Act in the Supreme Court of Canada on Tuesday as a two-day hearing started to determine the future of how the country weighs the environmental costs of economic development.
Several of the five-member panel of justices hearing the appeal of an Alberta decision that found the act unconstitutional quizzed Ottawa’s representatives about whether the legislation is too broad.
Justice Malcolm Rowe said the act allows Ottawa to use narrow concerns over matters such as fisheries to gain control over a wide variety of unconnected issues.
“The feds get their hook in under some head of power and once the hook is in, they can use that for any purpose they want,” he said….