Faculty
Geography
Supervisor Name
Carol Hunsberger
Keywords
impact assessment, natural resources, oil and gas, pipeline, energy
Description
This project investigates the practice of strategic boundary drawing in energy and resource project reviews. Focusing on applications to Canadian federal and provincial review bodies over the past 20 years, we ask: to what extent have proponents of oil and gas projects, hydroelectric dams, mines etc. used two strategies: 1) ‘slicing’ complex projects into multiple parts and filing separate applications for each, or 2) ‘splicing’ multiple actions together into a single application – with what outcomes for regulatory approval? This study contributes to three areas of scholarship: 1) theoretical work on the relational nature of space and scale; 2) decolonial critiques of Canada’s impact assessment and legal regimes; and 3) efforts to advance sustainable transitions through a climate justice lens.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to my supervisor, Dr. Carol Hunsberger, the Western USRI program, and the Department of Geography and Environment for their support.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Document Type
Poster
Included in
Environmental Studies Commons, Human Geography Commons, Nature and Society Relations Commons, Place and Environment Commons
Constructing scale, eroding responsibility: the politics of scoping in Canadian energy project reviews
This project investigates the practice of strategic boundary drawing in energy and resource project reviews. Focusing on applications to Canadian federal and provincial review bodies over the past 20 years, we ask: to what extent have proponents of oil and gas projects, hydroelectric dams, mines etc. used two strategies: 1) ‘slicing’ complex projects into multiple parts and filing separate applications for each, or 2) ‘splicing’ multiple actions together into a single application – with what outcomes for regulatory approval? This study contributes to three areas of scholarship: 1) theoretical work on the relational nature of space and scale; 2) decolonial critiques of Canada’s impact assessment and legal regimes; and 3) efforts to advance sustainable transitions through a climate justice lens.