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Government appoints temporary members to the National Energy Board

Subject to Governor-in-Council approval, they will be appointed in the coming weeks and are expected to be assigned to the Energy East review panel.
energy east pipeline

Natural Resources Canada said today that it has appointing four temporary members to be assigned to the Energy East review panel.

Earlier this year, the government ministry said that National Energy Board hearings in Montreal on the pipeline were cancelled in August after protesters swept into the meeting room. The second day of hearings, scheduled for the following day were also postponed, and no new date has been set.

"This decision was made in light of a violent disruption in the hearing room this morning which threatened the security of everyone involved in the panel session," the NEB said in a statement.

"All three Panel Members have decided to recuse themselves in order to preserve the integrity of the National Energy Board and of the Energy East and Eastern Mainline Review," says the NEB statement. "The Members acted in good faith, and have pledged not to discuss these two applications with either other Board members or Board staff."

Today, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, Jim Carr, announced the appointment of four temporary members to the National Energy Board (NEB). In June, the NEB announced that it would assign temporary members to travel along the proposed Energy East pipeline route to carry out enhanced community and Indigenous engagement.

The following people have been appointed and may be assigned by the NEB to carry out this community and Indigenous engagement: Damien Côté, of Quebec; Ronald Durelle, of New Brunswick; Wilma Jacknife, of Alberta; and Alain Jolicoeur, of Ontario.

Three additional, fully bilingual temporary board members are currently being recruited. Subject to Governor-in-Council approval, they will be appointed in the coming weeks and are expected to be assigned to the Energy East review panel.

Environmental action group Environment Defence said in a statement, " If the government is truly interested in restoring public confidence in the energy project approval process, it has to recognize that Energy East needs to go through a new process. The federal government has promised to overhaul the NEB – and now is the time to deliver on this promise to Canadians."