Trans Mountain filed a notice of motion on May 28 with the National Energy Board (NEB) requesting an extension to the June 4 deadline to respond to Round 1 information requests from intervenors.
“Since receiving more than 10,000 questions earlier this month, the company has worked, and continue to work, diligently to provide full and adequate responses to all information requests that we believe are relevant to the List of Issues identified by the NEB,” said a company media release.
Despite these efforts, because of the large number of information requests posed, Trans Mountain simply cannot respond with full and adequate responses and is asking for the deadline to be extended to June 27.
Trans Mountain expects to complete responses from about half of the 117 intervenors who chose to submit questions, by the original deadline of June 4.
“Our team has been working around the clock to answer every question within the scope of the NEB review thoughtfully and with care. The questions cover a variety of subjects including marine operations, environment, engineering, finance and emergency and spill response and in some cases, are very detailed and involved,” said Scott Stoness, Kinder Morgan Canada’s vice president of regulatory and finance. “Our motion proposes an extension to this deadline, but we’re hopeful it won’t impact the overall review period set out by the NEB.”
Information requests are an opportunity for the NEB or an intervenor to ask written questions or request additional information about the project or Trans Mountain’s application – both the questions and the responses are posted on the NEB’s website.