TERRACE, B.C. -- A lawyer for the Northern Gateway oil pipeline told a federal review panel Monday that there are many reasons the controversial project should be approved -- billions of them, in fact.
In final arguments to the federal panel reviewing the project, Richard Neufeld stressed that the pipeline between Alberta and the B.C. coast will ensure Canadian producers get full market value for their product.
And he said that will benefit all Canadians.
"It's going to allow our country to enjoy tremendous economic benefits that would be afforded by this project, while at the same time providing fair and reasonable protections for local and regional interests," Neufeld said.
After more than year of public hearings around the province, the final phase got underway Monday in Terrace, B.C., with a visible security presence.
About 200 opponents of the project held a rally on Sunday, and they promised another Monday afternoon protest outside the hotel where the review hearings are taking place.
The project proposed by Calgary-based Enbridge (TSX:ENB) involves two 1,200-kilometre pipelines linking Bruderheim, just outside of Edmonton, to a marine terminal in Kitimat. One pipe would carry diluted bitumen, the heavy, molasses-like oil produced in the oil sands, and the other would carry natural gas condensate, used to dilute the bitumen, from Kitimat east to Alberta.
The project would free land-locked Alberta to expand its customer base beyond the United States, a development worth billions of dollars in additional revenues.
More than three dozen parties are scheduled to make a final appeal to the panel over the next two weeks.
Supporters of the pipeline that have remained largely quiet throughout the process are now slated to present final arguments to the panel, including the Alberta government, the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce and Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, as well as industry players such as Nexen and Cenovus (TSX:CVE).
John Carruthers, president of Northern Gateway Pipelines, said that as the clock winds down on the review process, he believes the project will go ahead.
"Yes, the project should proceed, and that doesn't stop the dialogue," he said outside the hearing room.
"We'll continue to have dialogue with those who support the project, with those who oppose the project. There are still issues people have and we'll still try and address those, but in terms of the big questions, it's urgently needed and it can built and operated safely."
Art Sterritt, executive director of Coastal First Nations, disagreed.
The coalition of aboriginal groups that call the B.C. coast home rejoined the review process it had walked away from earlier this year in order to appeal to the panel to reject the project.
"As far as we're concerned, the Northern Gateway pipeline is not in the public interest and should be rejected," Sterritt told the panel.
"How can it be in the public interest to approve a project that is opposed by all coastal First Nations?"
If the project is approved, operations would commence in 2013 -- two years after the initial estimated start date.
The panel's report to the federal government is due by the end of the year.
