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The company said that if the proposal is approved, the construction and long-term operation of the project will meet the highest standards of environmental performance, support aboriginal communities and provide lasting benefits for British Columbians, Albertans and Canadians.

The Conference Board of Canada has estimated the project will generate $46.7 billion in government revenues and 802,000 person years of employment over more than 20 years.

The study estimated Alberta would receive 55 per cent of the jobs and 41.5 per cent of the fiscal impacts, while B.C. would garner 24 per cent of the jobs and 12 per cent of the fiscal benefits.

But Polak said: “We don’t have to trade jobs for the environment.”

Former NEB chair Gaetan Caron, now a fellow at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, said support or lack of support of the B.C. government is not critical in determining whether the project should be approved.

“The NEB doesn’t look at the provincial interests, or the territorial interests, or the regional interests,” he said. “It looks at Canada’s national interests.”

He said the NEB will integrate the social, environmental and economic factors together and envision what the nation will be like with and without the project.

“If the vision they prefer is with the project, rather than without, then they address their mind to the specifics of how do we make this pipeline safe,” he said.

Werner Antweiler, an associate professor at the University of B.C.’s School of Business, said the B.C. government has little to lose opposing the project over environmental concerns since there are few permanent jobs associated with it.