LandKeepers News Archive
Marine Board a Good Step
July 08 2009 | News Articles | Kitimat Northern Sentinel
“A good and very worthwhile step”.
That’s how Enbridge Northern Gateway president John Carruthers described the June 18-19 inaugural meeting of the Marine Community Advisory Board (MCAB). “We certainly got some very specific feedback on aspects of the project people had a keen interest in,” he said. And therefore the meeting had achieved its objective of getting community input and establishing a process for communication and information sharing.
“I think we came away with a process to better understand all issues and maybe a workable way to close any gap or finding solutions that can be acceptable to all parties,” he added.
On demands for a public inquiry, Carruthers said, “It’s an issue than needs debate and that’s what we were trying to facilitate, a process that has that discussion.” As for the growing environmentalist campaign against Northern Gateway, he agreed there was “a strong interest” on the potential impacts of the proposal. “Therefore, We’ll need to demonstrate we’ll build the project safely.” Describing the questions raised as legitimate, he said Enbridge intended to address them “very thoroughly and very publicly”.
Asked about those people who appeared implacably opposed to the project, Carruthers responded, “We’re very hopeful that with the conversation and sharing information you can begin to find solutions.”
Carruthers said that invitations to the MCAB meeting had been sent to those who had shown an interest in the proposal in the past – for example by attending one of the open houses. In the end about 80 people showed up representing First Nations, environmental, business and recreational interests, “a broad representation”. Carruthers was also clear on there being a long way to go yet with the Northern Gateway proposal.
Anticipating two years in the regulatory process, he said the NEB had to decide whether the project was “in the broad Canadian interest” – and that included from an economic, environmental and safety perspective.
And Enbridge itself had to be convinced the project was commercially viable.
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