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Benefit to Canada no longer matters
Year Published: 1991Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX4249 Abstract: The National Energy Board, the federal agency that is supposed to regulate Canadian energy exports, has dropped its 'benefit-to-Canada' test for deciding whether an export should be approved. The test itself was a much-diluted criterion after the Free Trade Agreement forced it to abandon its previous mandate to ensure that Canada maintain at 25-year reserve of energy at all times. It dropped the 'benefit-to-Canada test' after American energy companies pressured the Canadian government to drop the test. The federal government has also taken away from the NEB the power to rule on hydro-electric exports, thereby allowing provinces such as Quebec and British Columbia to contract hydro deals with U.S. customers without any public input. |