Cullen wants new evidence considered

Skeena-Bulkley Valley NDP MP Nathan Cullen is urging the Joint Review Panel examining the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline to accept new evidence.

Cullen wrote an open letter to Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver and Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea expressing his disappointment a recently released federal government report on humpback whales won't be considered by the panel.

The panel is currently preparing its recommendation to Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq which is due on Dec. 31 and recently ruled it would not accept the humpback report as late evidence.

"I wish I could feign some measure of surprise on this matter," Cullen wrote to the federal cabinet ministers. "But like many Canadians, I have come to see this kind of negligence as not only a passing tendency of the Conservative government but as a very intentional aspect of the government's resource and environmental policy."

The panel determined that the report was not part of its mandate.