The Enbridge Northern Gateway Joint Review Panel will be spending more than two months in Prince Rupert early next year as part of the final hearings on the project.
The panel released a revised hearing schedule on Nov. 15, outlining opportunities to provide oral statements on the proposed pipeline from Edmonton to Kitimat, with Prince Rupert being one of only four communities in BC to host the panel.
There will be three weeks of hearings in February, on the weeks of Feb. 3, Feb. 10 and Feb. 24. March will include two weeks of hearings, including the weeks March 10 and March 17. Hearings will resume on March 31, and will carry on through the weeks of April 7, April 21 and April 28, and a final week of hearings will be held the week of May 12.
The hearings are scheduled, with the exception of the week of March 31, to run from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday to Friday with four weeks including a Saturday morning hearing.
According to Annie Roy, communications manager for the Joint Review Panel, the schedule is based on the expressed need.
“The way it works is intervenors needed to provide us an estimate of how long they need to question the panel or the company.... Based on that information the weeks needed to be extended in order to hear from everyone,” she said.
Other hearings will take place in Victoria and Vancouver. The panel expects to begin its deliberations in July and release its report on Dec. 29, 2013.