Give Obama elbow room on environment, Saskatchewan premier tells Ottawa

OTTAWA – Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is telling the Harper government it needs to bring in long-delayed regulations on the oil and gas industry to burnish Canada’s environmental credentials and win pipeline approvals.

Wall says Canada needs to give the Obama administration in Washington more environmental elbow room.

The federal Conservatives have said since 2007 that they would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by imposing regulations on industrial sectors.

But the federal government has so far avoided the fastest-growing and most contentious sector, oil and gas.

Wall is telling a conference of conservative political thinkers that these regulations need to be brought forward to give Canada environmental leverage in arguing for pipeline approvals.

The Saskatchewan premier says he doesn’t know why it has taken eight years to regulate such an important sector, but Ottawa needs to get it right.