VANCOUVER — Opponents of Kinder Morgan's plan to boost capacity of its Trans Mountain pipeline across southern B.C., accuse the National Energy Board of once again changing key dates in the review process.
The NEB is due to release draft conditions for the pipeline on Aug. 12.
Earlier this month it changed the deadline for letters of comment on the draft conditions from July 23 to Sept. 3, but the Sierra Club says the NEB has just issued a new deadline of Aug. 18.
Sierra Club spokeswoman Larissa Stendie says that gives opponents just six days to respond and she calls the NEB handling of the pipeline review process "chaotic," "deeply flawed," and "unfair."
She urges the energy board to stick to its Sept. 3 date, while other critics say the mid-August deadline raises concerns that any comments will be marginalized or ignored.
NEB spokeswoman Tara O'Donovan says the date was initially changed to Sept. 3 in response to a motion from the City of Chilliwack to extend the deadline.
Previously, commenters were expected to file their letters of comment before the draft conditions were released, she says.
However, she says the deadline was changed to Aug. 18 to give time for interveners and Trans Mountain to respond to letters of comment in their written submissions.
Trans Mountain must file its written argument by Aug. 20, and interveners must file their written argument on Sept. 3, she says.
"We expect six days should be sufficient time for writers to provide comments on draft conditions in their letters of comment. If any comment writers do not view six days as providing enough time, they can request an extension," says O'Donovan.
She says the online public registry has been updated to reflect the change and the board apologizes for any inconvenience caused by the matter.
Kinder Morgan hopes to triple the bitumen-carrying capacity of the Trans Mountain line by laying almost 1,000 kilometres of new pipe between Edmonton and Metro Vancouver, increasing the number of tankers in Burrard Inlet to 34 from the current five per month.
