Federal government appoints three new bilingual NEB members,
OTTAWA — Federal Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr has moved to revive the stalled review of TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline by appointing three new, bilingual, temporary members to the National Energy Board.
The move came Monday while the dust was still settling on the Liberal government’s pan-Canadian climate policy framework, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrestled into reality late Friday in a hard-won and less-than-unanimous agreement with provincial and territorial premiers.
The Trudeau government has been playing off climate policy initiatives and fossil fuel infrastructure approvals in a carefully choreographed dance all fall, hoping to advance the duelling agendas amid deeply divided regional and public opinion perspectives.
With much of the policy fine print of the pan-Canadian climate framework still to be negotiated — such as a low-carbon fuel standard for vehicles — the government is now setting the stage for another major pipeline debate, this time on a proposed 4,500-kilometre line that would carry Alberta and Saskatchewan oil to refineries and ports in New Brunswick.