Tuesday, February 7, 2023
No Result
View All Result
  • Media
Support Us
Macdonald-Laurier Institute
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Energy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Energy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media
No Result
View All Result
Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Crowley in the Globe: Where does one apply for a ‘social licence’?

May 2, 2014
in Columns, Domestic Policy Program, Economic policy, Energy, In the Media, Indigenous Affairs Program, Latest News, Social licence
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A

Writing in the Globe and Mail, MLI Managing Director Brian Lee Crowley questions the frequently cited requirement for companies to have a “social licence” to operate. He writes that the term is either “meaningless or a polite term for mob rule”. Crowley explains that while there no forms to fill out for such a licence and no appeal process if one was denied such a thing, genuine reviews of activities such as mining or pipeline building should be based on clear rules that treat all parties fairly. Crowley writes: “The proponents of ‘social licence’, however, sneeringly dismiss this as mere legalism. According to them, some abstract entity called ‘society’ must be satisfied or else it is illegitimate to build the mine or the pipeline or the plant”. Crowley argues that this must never be the basis “on which civilized societies make decisions”.

Brian Lee Crowley, May 2, 2014

The need for “social licence” before major development projects can proceed seems increasingly accepted as self-evident despite the fact that it is either meaningless or a polite term for mob rule.

Wherever there is organised opposition to new pipelines, mines, railroads, manufacturing plants or tree cutting, to mention just a few examples, the opponents repeat the mantra that such projects must obtain social licence or else they must not be allowed.

No one, however, seems to be able to answer a few basic questions about the need for such licence.

What, for instance, is the address to which you need to write to obtain it? What form must be used? Who are the authorities entitled to decide if your application meets the rules and to whom are they accountable? In fact, what are the rules? What are the procedures followed in determining if you satisfy them? What appeal procedures exist if a project proponent feels their project has not been fairly assessed?

These are not silly questions. They go right to the heart of how a society that lives under the rule of law operates.

The very vagueness of the term social licence means we cannot know what the rules are, when you’re in compliance or when you’ve still got work to do. And project opponents like that vagueness just fine because it gives them unilateral authority to claim that the need for social licence has not been met. Who can prove them wrong since no one knows the tests that must be satisfied?

Change always creates winners and losers. That is why we hedge economic development around with many restrictions and requirements, including the need to consult and compensate people whose legitimate interests may be damaged, including, properly, Aboriginal peoples. We must minimize any unavoidable harms to the greatest extent possible. But we have to balance the harm created against the benefits that development may create for others in terms of jobs, business and investment and opportunity.

When the benefit outweighs the costs, every society must have ways to allow a decision to be made to proceed, even in the face of opposition. But we don’t just allow those who benefit to ride roughshod over their opponents.

In a civilized society we create numerous institutions that are domiciled at known addresses that are given specific authority to examine impartially the issues that are raised according to known rules, outfits like the National Energy Board (NEB) or various environmental assessment agencies. Those organisations apply laws they have not themselves made, but that are determined by legislators. These boards and commissions are accountable to the governments that appoint them as well as to the courts, to whom aggrieved parties may appeal when they think the rules have been broken. The legislators who pass the laws creating these agencies must submit themselves periodically to the verdict of the voters. The rules generally require public consultations of some kind and compensation for damaged interests. The NEB recently granted a permit to the Northern Gateway pipeline, subject to 209 conditions designed to respond to rising expectations around the stringency of approvals for such major developments.

It is under this painstakingly built up institutional edifice that many of the great nation-building decisions of Canada have occurred in the teeth of opposition. The building of canals, the railways, the first pan-Canadian pipelines, highways and more. Sometimes mistakes are made and there are consequences, such as the way the great Pipeline Debate sowed the seeds of the defeat of the St. Laurent government in the 1950s. We are always revising the rules as we learn more about public expectations, innovative technologies, risks and opportunities. In other words these are the procedures by which our society has decided such painful but necessary decisions shall be made, both because they make progress possible and they treat all the parties fairly.  If this is “social licence,” who can object?

The proponents of “social licence”, however, sneeringly dismiss this as mere legalism. According to them, some abstract entity called “society” must be satisfied or else it is illegitimate to build the mine or the pipeline or the plant.

What they really mean is that change must be approved by its opponents who decide whether “social licence” has been achieved, while its absence is documented by angry media releases or hand-lettered signs waved on the evening news. “Social licence” ought properly to be called “opponents’ permission”. And a moment’s thought reveals why such open-ended, undefined, biased and unaccountable tests can never be the basis on which civilized societies make such decisions.

Brian Lee Crowley (twitter.com/brianleecrowley) is the Managing Director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, an independent non-partisan public policy think tank in Ottawa: www.macdonaldlaurier.ca.

 

Previous Post

Greg Poelzer on 1310News: Discussing Canada’s ‘forgotten North’

Next Post

Coates in the Post: Economy limiting chances for young adults

Related Posts

It’s time to leverage Canada’s energy advantage into a geopolitical one, too: Shuvaloy Majumdar in Maclean’s
Columns

For the oil patch, ‘just transition’ is buzzword legislation, not sound economics: Heather Exner-Pirot in the Globe

February 7, 2023
Prioritizing gender identity over sex in prisons endangers female prisoners
Releases

Prioritizing gender identity over sex in prisons endangers female prisoners

February 6, 2023
Greedflation? It’s a government thing: Philip Cross in the Financial Post
Columns

Jagmeet Singh uses confusion about private care to support the status quo: Shawn Whatley in the National Post

February 6, 2023
Next Post

Coates in the Post: Economy limiting chances for young adults

Macdonald-Laurier Institute

323 Chapel Street, Suite #300
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 7Z2 Canada

613.482.8327

info@macdonaldlaurier.ca
MLI directory

Follow us on

Newsletter Signup

First Name
Last Name
Email Address

Support Us

Support the Macdonald-Laurier Institute to help ensure that Canada is one of the best governed countries in the world. Click below to learn more or become a sponsor.

Support Us

Inside Policy Magazine

  • Current Issue
  • Back Issues
  • Advertising
  • Inside Policy Blog
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Energy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

IDEAS CHANGE THE WORLD!Have the latest Canadian thought leadership delivered straight to your inbox.
First Name
Last Name
Email address

No thanks, I’m not interested.