XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ont.politics   
   XPost: mtl.general, van.general, sk.politics   
   From: Çons@minority#s   
      
   No matter what the 'recommendations' are from the National Energy Board or the   
   Canadian   
   Environmental Assessment Agency, the Harper Cons have already made the   
   statement that the   
   Enbridge Pipeline project 'WILL proceed'.   
      
   Now they're pushing to rush those assessment through so that the pipeline is   
   started under   
   the protection of THEIR government term.  Looks like they know they're going   
   to be toast   
   in the next federal election.   
      
   Now -  whatever the good people of this country who care something about this   
   country -   
   must start making plans to disrupt the government's plan and the pipeline   
   itself . . . . .   
   ___________________________________________   
      
   August 3, 2012   
      
      
   Ottawa sets December 2013 deadline for Northern Gateway pipeline project report   
      
   OTTAWA - The federal government added pressure Friday to a politically-charged   
   debate over   
   the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline project across British   
   Columbia and   
   Alberta as it announced an environmental assessment of the project must be   
   completed in   
   the next 16 months.   
      
   In a letter to the joint review panel examining the $6-billion proposal,   
   Environment   
   Minister Peter Kent and National Energy Board chairman Gaetan Caron set a   
   deadline of Dec.   
   31, 2013 for the report.   
      
   The new deadline is required to comply with the Canadian Environmental   
   Assessment Act and   
   the Harper government's omnibus budget legislation passed earlier this year.   
      
   The legislation included numerous bills that the Conservatives wanted to pass   
   after   
   winning their first majority in the May 2011 election, including measures they   
   say will   
   speed regulatory reviews and cut overlapping efforts.   
      
   The joint review panel has been holding public hearings on the project that   
   would deliver   
   crude from Alberta's oilsands to tankers in Kitimat, B.C., for shipment to   
   Asia.   
      
   The announcement Friday came as at least one Conservative cabinet minister   
   expressed   
   doubts about Enbridge's safety record.   
      
   Heritage Minister James Moore, the senior minister for B.C., told a Vancouver   
   radio   
   station that Enbridge must take environmental safety more seriously if it   
   expects the   
   controversial pipeline project to be approved.   
      
   "I believe in getting Canada's energy products to world markets, and I believe   
   that's in   
   Canada's interests and I believe that's in British Columbia's interests," he   
   said earlier   
   this week on the Bill Good Show on CKNW.   
      
   "But this project will not survive public scrutiny unless Enbridge takes far   
   more   
   seriously their obligations to engage with the public and to answer those very   
   legitimate   
   questions about the way in which they have operated their business in the very   
   recent   
   past."   
      
   However, Moore declined to wade into the debate over whether B.C. should get a   
   larger   
   portion of the potential revenues, as the province's Premier Christy Clark has   
   demanded.   
      
   Clark said Friday that Ottawa and Alberta must be willing to talk about giving   
   the   
   province its "fair share" of the pipeline proceeds, though her counterpart in   
   Alberta has   
   rebuffed the notion of sharing the money.   
      
   In a statement Friday, Enbridge president Al Monaco defended the company's   
   safety record.   
      
   Monaco said the company (TSX:ENB) invested about $400 million last year alone   
   in the   
   safety of its vast pipeline network and has doubled the number of staff   
   dedicated to leak   
   detection and pipeline control systems over the last two years.   
      
   Calgary-based Enbridge has faced scrutiny and criticism in recent days   
   following a spill   
   last week from its Line 14 pipeline running through Grand Marsh, Wisc., dumped   
   roughly   
   1,200 barrels oil into a field that is part of the pipeline right-of-way.   
      
   The company was also rapped by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board   
   in its report   
   into a 2010 spill into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.   
      
   The U.S. report prompted the National Energy Board in Canada to announce it   
   will increase   
   safety audits on the company's Canadian operations in the coming months.   
      
      
   ================================================================   
               We hang the petty thieves and appoint the greater ones to public   
   office   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)