In the wake of allegations from government insiders that the Trans Mountain pipeline approval process was “rigged” while Indigenous communities were still being consulted on the project, one Liberal MP said he hopes the news isn’t true.

“I hope that’s not how we consult,” Liberal MP Robert-Falcon Ouellette said.

“I hope that the decision was not a foregone conclusion, but that these were meaningful and honest consultations.”

The Indigenous MP from Red Pheasant First Nation’s comments come the day after the National Observer‘s Mike de Souza revealed that high-ranking public servant Erin O’Gorman — who was, at the time, the associate deputy minister of the major projects management office — may have instructed government officials “to give cabinet a legally-sound basis to say ‘yes’” to the Kinder Morgan project. That instruction was allegedly given at least one month before the pipeline expansion was approved — and while consultations with Indigenous groups were still ongoing.

In reaction to the news, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has called on the government to turn over all relevant documents. He also said the NDP will move a motion during the Thursday’s natural resources committee meeting asking the committee to haul O’Gorman before them to clarify the news.

While he didn’t stand behind the NDP’s call for documents, Ouellette, who doesn’t sit on the natural resources committee and will not be able to vote on the motion, said he supports the NDP’s move to request O’Gorman’s testimony.

“Why not? Yeah. I don’t see a problem with it, personally,” Ouellette said.

“If you’re a functionary that’s made an important decision you should be able to defend that decision in the public sphere.”

Ouellette isn’t alone in his concerns.

The NDP has been vocally deriding the news that the Trans Mountain pipeline approval process may have been “rigged.” NDP MP Nathan Cullen raised it during question period Wednesday, when he said the Kinder Morgan project’s approval process was “looking more rigged than a Russian election.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shot back, assuring Cullen that the government took additional steps to make the Trans Mountain Expansion Project’s approval process more “rigorous.” He also pointed out that the government had extended consultations with Indigenous peoples and asked why the NDP was “ignoring” the Indigenous communities who are backing the pipeline project.

The Trans Mountain pipeline has been marred by provincial squabbling, which escalated after the the company’s April 8 announcement that it would suspend all non-essential spending on the pipeline project. Kinder Morgan made the contentious call in response to the B.C. government’s opposition to the expansion of an existing pipeline to the B.C. coast — allowing Alberta oil to reach new markets.

In response to the B.C. government’s opposition to Kinder Morgan, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley introduced legislation on April 16 that would allow her government to restrict B.C.’s flow of Alberta oil. Saskatchewan and Quebec have also weighed in to take sides in the escalating squabble.

Provincial resistance to the project — and the inter-provincial bickering that followed — has been identified as a key source of concern for the company as it attempts to twin an existing pipeline and extend it to the West Coast.

Kinder Morgan has given the government until May 31 to solve the pipeline dispute.

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