*BREAKING: The NEB has given its endorsement of Trans Mountain. Read our story here.

The National Energy Board has confirmed that its report on the reconsideration of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project will be made public on Friday morning – just after it has delivered the report to the federal government.

article continues below

Up until Wednesday, the NEB was unclear if it would be posting the report on its website on the deadline day.

The NEB’s reconsideration follows a Federal Court of Appeal decision in August 2018 that quashed Trans Mountain’s approvals and permits due to inadequate consultation with affected First Nations, as well as the exclusion of marine shipping from the original NEB review.

In September, the federal Cabinet directed the NEB to complete a new marine shipping review within 22 weeks.

The NOW will have team coverage of the release of this document, including analysis of what happens next depending on the report’s recommendations. The NEB is staging a news conference explaining its report.

After this, you can expect dozens of groups to send out statements reacting to the report, ranging from Trans Mountain to environmental groups to local politicians. Everybody will be trying to spin this things within an inch of its life.

Few expect the NEB to reject the Trans Mountain project. Then again, few expected the Federal Court of Appeal to give its decision.

The reconsideration has been contentious at times, with the stand.earth group unsuccessfully trying to get the NEB to expand the scope of its review to include the project’s impacts on climate change.

Other criticism has involved what some have felt is a rushed process due to the impending federal election this fall.

“Unfortunately, the NEB repeated many of the same errors that landed the government in court last time,” said Rueben George, spokesperson for Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s Sacred Trust Initiative, in a statement. “The ridiculously short timeline, the limited scope of the review, and limited testing of evidence made this re-do even worse than the first hearing.”

The Tsleil-Waututh said that in “spite of significant flaws in the NEB process,” its members participated by filing evidence, participating in the Aboriginal oral traditional evidence hearings and engaging in the review.

Attached to this article are multiple articles the NOW has written about submissions to the NEB’s reconsideration.

Take a read through and prep yourself for Friday morning’s decision.

Than stay tuned to the Burnabynow.com for our coverage.