Serious questions must be asked about Trans Mountain Hearing Process

Media Release- September 3^rd 2015
Serious questions must be asked about Trans Mountain Hearing Process
For Immediate Release
 
Victoria B.C. – After more than a year and a half, the National Energy Board (NEB) hearings for the Trans Mountain Expansion Project remain on hold as the previous deadline for final arguments passes. Andrew Weaver, MLA for Oak Bay Gordon Head and Deputy Leader of the BC Green Party is reiterating his call for the BC Government to establish it’s own review process.

September 3rd had been the deadline for intervenors to submit their final arguments for the NEB’s consideration under the old timeline. No new timeline has been established for when intervenors will submit their final arguments, or when the process will be resumed.

“My office prepared almost sixty pages of final arguments calling into question the evidence Kinder Morgan provided, especially around spill response.” said Andrew Weaver. “It is outrageous that once again the very impartiality of the process needs to be seriously debated. We’ve spent hundreds of hours operating under ridiculous time constraints reading thousands of pages of evidence to prepare our submissions and final arguments. The fact that in the eleventh hour the NEB is forced to put the hearing on hold points to the complete dysfunction of the current review process.”

The hearings were suspended by the NEB after Steven Kelly was appointed by Stephen Harper to the NEB in late July. Mr. Kelly is an energy consultant who was involved with preparing evidence that Kinder Morgan is in part relying on to justify the economics of their project,. This has set off a review by the NEB to identify the evidence that is connected to Mr. Kelly, striking any from the record that isn’t replaced by Kinder Morgan.

“The BC government is quick to suggest it’s five conditions are sufficient in ensuring that a project is in the best interests of British Columbians. ” said Andrew Weaver. “The fact is the five conditions can not, and do not act as a replacement for a rigorous process that allows for a diversity of intervenors to cross examine and test the evidence provided. I have lost confidence in the process. It is time for the BC Government to pull out of the equivalency agreement for this project and begin laying plans to initiate its own, rigorous review process.”

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Media Contact

Mat Wright
Press Secretary – Andrew Weaver, MLA
Cell: 250 216 3382
Email: Mat.Wright@leg.bc.ca