The National Energy Board (NEB) issued a Hearing Order, and updated it periodically, that lays out the key steps and schedule for the process to consider the Trans Mountain Expansion Project. The NEB regulatory process has opportunities for both written and oral arguments by Intervenors, Commenters and Trans Mountain, and involves Aboriginal groups, companies, organizations and individuals. In addition to 400 Intervenors with full process rights and responsibilities, there are 1,250 Commenters who can submit letters to the Board.Since the filing of Trans Mountain’s Application for expansion, Intervenors have submitted four rounds of Information Requests (IRs) to Trans Mountain, totalling more than 19,000 questions. In addition to Intervenor questions, Trans Mountain has also responded to five rounds of IRs from the NEB. All written evidence is available on the NEB website.

The written portion is then followed by final oral summary arguments. During the oral argument no new evidence can be provided. OnDecember 17, 2015 Trans Mountain will have 60 minutes to present their final oral argument to the NEB in Calgary, AB. This will be followed by Intervenor final oral arguments from January 19 – 29, 2016 in Burnaby, BC and from February 2 – 5, 2016 in Calgary, AB. Eighty-eight Intervenors registered to speak, either individually or jointly, with 59 presentations taking place in Burnaby and 14 taking place in Calgary. Each presentation will be limited to 40 minutes and a schedule of proceedings can be found here.

The NEB will be live streaming audio of each hearing day and, for the first time, they will also be broadcasting video of each day live on their website. All video and audio will be easily accessible for future streaming and downloading. The oral summary argument will also be transcribed daily with electronic transcripts available on the online public registry for viewing and printing.

The NEB has 15 months to complete its review. In August 2014, it issued a revised hearing schedule which extended the review process by seven months to allow for the submission of supplemental materials related to the Westridge Delivery Pipeline (Burnaby Mountain route option) to be filed. This revised schedule shifted the NEB submission of a recommendation to the Federal Cabinet to January 2016. Further to this, on August 21, 2015, the National Energy Board (NEB) announced it was striking Trans Mountain’s filed evidence that was prepared by or under the direction of Steven Kelly. Subsequently, on September 18, 2015, the NEB made the decision to implement an excluded period so that it could acquire information from Trans Mountain and Intervenors in relation to Mr. Kelly’s stricken evidence.

As a result of the excluded period, the legislated time limit for the Board to issue its report to the Governor in Council is now May 20, 2016.

Key remaining hearing schedule dates:

December 14, 2015

  • Commenters file letter addressing the replacement evidence.

December 15, 2015

  • Trans Mountain files written argument-in-chief, including amended comments on any draft conditions as a result of evidence filed since Trans Mountain’s provided its initial comments on the draft conditions.

December 17, 2015

  • Oral hearing to hear Trans Mountain’s oral summary argument (Calgary, AB)

January 12, 2016

  • Intervenors file written argument-in-chief and reply to Trans Mountain, including comments on draft conditions.

January – February 2016

  • Oral hearings to hear intervenors’ oral summary argument and/or reply argument (location to be determined).

February 2016

  • Trans Mountain files written reply argument.
  • Hearing closes immediately after reply argument is received

May 20, 2016

  • Time limit for the NEB to release its Report to the Governor in Council and provide it to the Minister of Natural Resources.
  • Government in Council must make the final decision to approve or deny an application within three months of receiving the NEB Report