FEDERAL HEARINGS into whether or not Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline project should be approved return to Terrace next week.
The panel conducting the hearings has booked the Kitsumkalum community hall for four days beginning the evening of May 7 with an option for a fifth day if necessary.
These days are for 10-minute presentations made by people with an opinion or position on the $5.5 billion project to pump Alberta oil through a 1,100km pipeline to a marine export terminal in Kitimat.
“Panel members will listen to and consider all oral statements given throughout the joint review process,” reads a position paper issued by the panel.
These oral statements are different from the presentations made by intervenors when a first round of hearings began in Kitimat in January.
Intervenors at these first hearings provided evidence and have the ability to question project proponents and other intervenors at a final set of hearings.
Those making oral statements had to register by last October and had to sign up for a specific date and time a week before the start of the hearings.
One of the groups opposing the pipeline, Friends of Wild Salmon, held a workshop in Terrace Monday night to give tips and pointers to those making oral presentations.
The panel was in Smithers last week hearing from people there.
Hearings there lasted for five days.
According to a statement on the website of the Friends of Wild Salmon, 130 people from Smithers and area gave presentations at the hearings.