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Message: Lethbridge Herald Article
| Illness delays hearing into MATL line appeal |  |
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| Written by Ric Swihart | ||
| Friday, 16 January 2009 | ||
Scheduled Friday, the hearing before three justices of the appeal court will have to be rescheduled due to a justice’s illness. A new date has not been set. No new evidence will be presented, but lawyers for the landowner group and the company will argue two major points — is the line to be built as a private for-profit merchant line in the public interest and were landowners allowed a complete argument on the location of the line, claiming they were hindered by a conflict between the National Energy Board and the Alberta Energy and Utility Board. Scott Stenbeck, a Saskatchewan resident who works in southern Alberta, will argue the EUB should have opposed an NEB ruling on the location of a two-kilometre-wide corridor for the proposed line. That ruling precluded the selection of the best of all possible routes for the line, he said. That decision restricted the EUB from doing a good enough job to find the best line route. At the same time, said Stenbeck, MATL could have chosen to have a full hearing with the EUB, but “chose not to do that.” “Our evidence showed that for two or three per cent more money, a route much better and with less impact on landowners could have been chosen,” said Stenbeck. “MATL wanted a straight line (route) to save money.” Shael Galfand of Calgary, a communications spokesman for MATL, said that without prejudging the ruling, the company expects the public interest issue to be dealt with quickly by the justices. But on the NEB-EUB jurisdicticion argument, a ruling could take some time. |
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