By The Canadian Press

How social licence came to dominate the pipeline debate in Canada

May 20, 2016 | 3:44 PM

VANCOUVER — When Canadian mining executive Jim Cooney coined the term social licence in 1997, he was talking about building support for mines in developing countries, not resource projects at home.

But two decades later, the phrase is regularly invoked by politicians and environmentalists in the Canadian pipeline debate — and experts are split on whether that’s a good thing.

Cooney says companies have to understand they’re on a two-track approval process that includes a government permit and a social licence, or the support of local communities and their allies.

He says without a social licence to operate, energy companies can find themselves mired in legal challenges and unable to get shovels in the ground.

But MacDonald-Laurier Institute fellow Dwight Newman says the term has been expanded to a more ill-defined idea that environmental activists are abusing to undermine major projects.

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He says social licence is not a legal term and there already protections for local communities, the environment and indigenous groups in the regulatory scheme and the law.

The Canadian Press