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Équiterre's reaction to National Energy Board (NEB) recusals by Panel Members

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The Trudeau Government cannot trust this broken process

Montreal, September 9th 2016 - Équiterre reacted to the announcement by the NEB of the recusal of the two Panel Members who had a secret meeting with Premier Jean Charest in 2015, by underscoring that the Trudeau Government cannot hope to rely upon the recommendations of the NEB to make enlightened decisions on pipeline projects such as TransMountain and Energy East.

Beyond the appearance of a conflict of interest by the two Panel Members, Équiterre strongly believes that the current process is fatally flawed for numerous reasons but more notably:

- The decision by the NEB to consider TransCanada's application as "complete" even when crucial information is still missing, such as how the company intends to cross the Ottawa River;

- The fact that keyword searches of application are not available in French in the Energy East application. In fact, the NEB is not meeting its bilingual obligations by letting TransCanada handle the translation issues relating to its application.

"The NEB has clearly demonstrated in the last few weeks that it cannot do the work the Trudeau Government expects from it. The hearings have to be suspended until the law governing the NEB, federal environmental assessments, and public consultations have been overhauled" stated Steven Guilbeault senior director of Équiterre.

For more information:

Dale Robertson 514-605-2000