Elizabeth May says Tory 'culture' embedded in environmental reviews

The leader of the federal Green Party says she's worried about the "contamination" of the regulatory systems used to approve high-profile energy projects, following the conditionalapproval granted this week to the Pacific NorthWest LNG project.

"We have a system of rubber stamping bad projects while giving the minister talking points that say it's gone through a rigorous scientific review," Elizabeth May said in an interview with CBC Radio's The House.

"I greatly fear the culture of the previous 10 years remains deeply embedded throughout the regulatory regimes and I just don't want to rubber stamp dangerousprojects where the colour of the ink has changed, and that's the only thing that's happened after the election."

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• What's next for Pacific NorthWest LNG project? 4 questions answered

The proposed project would bring natural gas via pipeline to a terminal onLeluIsland, south of Prince Rupert at the mouth of theSkeenaRiver. Some First Nations and environmentalists argue the project will put the salmon fishery at risk.

Maysaid the environmental regulatory system has been "reprogrammed" to approve most projects.

"The fact that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans signed off on the project and said it would not affect the Skeena salmon run is to me a sign that we have avery large problem that runs much deeper than politics," she said.

On Tuesday, Catherine McKenna said thereview of the liquefied natural gas project was "rigorous," and based on both the "best available science and on Indigenoustraditional knowledge."

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency which May referred to as "hostile" in her interview with The House host Chris Hall released a draft report in February that said the project would result in roughly 6.5 to 8.7 megatonnes of greenhouse gas pollution each year.

Since that draft report, the agencyhas revised its estimate down closer to the five-megatonnelevel, or about the equivalent of one million new cars on Canadian roads each year.

But McKenna's approval this week attached the condition that the project emit no more than 4.3 megatonnes when fully operational, including no more than 3.2 megatonnes from the LNG terminal.