The tables are about to turn at the National Energy Board hearings into the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline.
Shortly after the Joint Review Panel (JRP) reconvenes at the Columbus Community Centre on Thursday morning, it will be Northern Gateway's turn to ask questions of expert witnesses put forth by interveners. Up to this point in the Prince George proceedings, the company behind the $6.5 billion plan to connect Alberta's oilsands and Kitimat with a pipeline had been the one answering all the questions.
The qusai-judicial process used to evaluate the environmental assessment of the plan means anyone who submits evidence, must be made available for cross-examination. Some of the interveners commissioned reports into the potential effects of the pipeline and the authors of those documents will be the ones facing questions over the course of the next week.
Before Northern Gateway lawyers begin asking questions, however, there is some leftover business from the last session to take care of. First up on Thursday will be for the lawyers for the JRP and the panel members themselves to ask questions of the final Northern Gateway witness panel to sit in Prince George. If history is any guide, that should take up most of the morning.
Environmental consultant Brian Churchill of B.C. Nature/Nature Canada is expected to be the first intervener witness to face questioning from Northern Gateway. Churchill produced a report the nature groups filed as evidence in the hearings on the impact the construction and operation of the pipeline might have on caribou herds, especially considering the risk of increased predation from wolves due to the open areas that will be created along the pipeline's right of way.
Also due up on Thursday afternoon are witnesses from ForestEthics Advocacy about the dangers of transporting diluted bitumen through the pipeline and the Northwest Institute of Bioregional Research on possible impacts on salmon in the event of a spill.
Of the 11 witness panels the interveners have made available to Northern Gateway, the company has chosen only to ask questions of five and haven't budgeted more than two hours for any particular group.
Witnesses from the Haisla Nation and the Raincoast Conservation Foundation will also face questions from Northern Gateway either later this week or early next week.
This third and final set of local hearings will also include four federal government witness panels, which will include representatives from five different government departments. Eight interveners have signed up to ask questions of at least one panel, with the environmental effects group the most popular of the bunch. That will also be the largest panel with 26 witnesses lined up to answer questions.
After the Prince George hearings wrap up on Nov. 29, the JRP will begin what's expected to be a marathon series of sessions in Prince Rupert beginning Dec. 10. Topics for the coastal community range from impacts on the marine environment due to increased tanker traffic from the project to the consultation process used with First Nations communities. There are eight sitting days set for December and 10 weeks of hearings between February and May.
