Feds set deadline for pipeline report

OTTAWA—The federal government has set a deadline for an environmental assessment and report on Enbridge’s controversial Northern Gateway pipeline project.
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 government’s omnibus budget legislation passed earlier this year.
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.
Aboriginal groups, environmentalists, and others have voiced concern over what a spill from the pipeline, or from a tanker on the West Coast, could do to the environment.
Last month, the B.C. government said it only could support the pipeline project if it met five criteria, including a greater portion of the economic benefits and assurances that the “best” responses will be available for potential spills on land and at sea.