| Canada's National Energy Board - No Credibility | 12 December 14 |
Most recently, Louisette uncovered an internal e-mail, from the National Energy Board (NEB), through an Access To Information Request, that appears to boast about new Harper Conservative government rules that reduce the public's ability to ask questions at pipeline hearings. In the report attached to the memo, the NEB's Hearing Manager for Oil Pipeline Applications told colleagues about the "successes" of a recently concluded Line 9A pipeline hearing in the summer of 2012. The manager states that the public's inability to cross-examine witnesses at the hearing was one of several achievements. The e-mail was written three weeks after the Harper government omnibus bill C-38 became law. Bill C-38 puts new limits on NEB hearings. Conservative Minister Joe Oliver said at the time that the reforms were necessary to halt "environmental and other radical groups" from hijacking pipeline reviews. The new bill and the new limits on the NEB demonstrate a complete disconnect from due process and public participation. If the NEB is seeking to limit public participation - the same public whose best interests it is supposed to be safeguarding then it is obviously operating without any credibility.
View December 9, 2014 Vancouver Observer article |
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