Nature Canada and BC Nature are standing up for nature as the National Energy Board (NEB) hearings on the TransMountain pipeline and tanker project draw nearer. The 1,180 TransMountain pipeline would increase capacity from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels per day, and result in oil tankers moving almost daily through the Salish Sea past critical Important Bird Areas such as Boundary Bay.

On January 16, 2015, our lawyers at the UVic Environmental Law Centre submitted a 125-page request for information on our behalf to the Proponent concerning the project’s effects on marine and shorebirds and other wildlife. For example, the information request questions whether the Proponent’s documents understate the risk of harm to birds from a spill and overestimate the resilience of bird populations to recover from an oil spill.

Prepared largely by the scientists on our team, this information request is extremely important given that the NEB has taken the unprecedented decision to eliminate oral cross-examination from the hearing process. Nature Canada has objected to the elimination of cross-examination on the grounds that this will seriously compromise the NEB’s ability to assess the evidence and determine whether or not the project is in the public interest.

The NEB hearings on the TransMountain project are now likely to occur in the summer and fall of 2015 with the report by the NEB expected in January 2016. Thanks to your support, Nature Canada can continue to be a voice for nature on these oil pipeline and tanker projects.