OTTAWA, May 4 /CNW Telbec/ – The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency
today announced a pilot project to substitute the National Energy Board
process for an environmental assessment by a review panel under the Canadian
Environmental Assessment Act (the Act), for the proposed Brunswick Pipeline.
This will be the first application of the substitution provisions of the
Act since the proclamation of the original Act in 1995, and it will therefore
be considered a trial to assess application of these provisions. The
substitution was approved by the Honourable Rona Ambrose, Minister of the
Environment and Minister responsible for the Canadian Environmental Assessment
Agency.
Substitution of the NEB process will result in more efficient and
effective application of the federal environmental assessment process to the
proposed Brunswick pipeline project by avoiding duplication while ensuring
that the public has opportunities to present its views to the NEB panel.
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The Agency will administer a Participant Funding Program to assist the
public to participate in the assessment of the project. Funding availability
will be announced in the near future.
Minister Ambrose’s decision is based on recommendations submitted by the
NEB in consultation with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Transport Canada and the
Canadian Transportation Agency.
The project’s proponent, Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline Management Ltd.
(M&NP), plans to build a 762 mm (30 inches) diameter natural gas pipeline that
will extend approximately 145 km from the Canaport liquefied natural gas
facility at Mispec Point in Saint John, New Brunswick to the international
border near St. Stephen, New Brunswick where it will interconnect to
facilities to be constructed. The pipeline will be 762 mm (30 inches) in
diameter and will include several facilities such as valve sites.
The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency administers the federal
environmental assessment process, which identifies the environmental effects
of proposed projects and measures to address those effects, in support of
sustainable development.
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/For further information: Media Information: Nicholas Girard, Senior
Communications Advisor, Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, (613)
957-0958, Fax: (613) 957-0946, nicholas.girard@ceaa-acee.gc.ca/
