Another massive setback

Continued from FP1

“Should TransCanada decide not to proceed with the projects after a thorough review of the NEB’s amendments, the carrying value of its investment in the projects as well as its ability to recover development costs incurred to date would be negatively impacted,” the release stated.

“Apart from Energy East, we will continue to advance our $24 billion near-term capital program in addition to our longer-term opportunities,” TransCanada CEO Russ Girling said in the release.

The delay marks another setback for a massive project, which has already seen its expected in-service date delayed due to the re-start of regulatory hearings.

NEB hearings on Energy East were suspended last year amid protests in Quebec because two board members met privately with former Quebec premier Jean Charest while he was consulting for TransCanada. The regulator named a new panel in January and have since announced an expanded hearings process for the project.

TransCanada had already re-submitted its massive, 30,000-page application for the project after the NEB deemed the application too difficult to read and understand in Feb. 2016. The company also nixed parts of the project, like a marine terminal in Cacouna, Que., over environmental concerns.

Politicians in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and New Brunswick support the project, while Ontario and Quebec gave TransCanada a list of demands for it.

The project, if built, would carry 1.1 million barrels of oil per day from Alberta and Saskatchewan to Atlantic Canada. Oil producers in Alberta have supported its construction as a way to lessen the domestic industry’s dependence on exports to the United States, which is the only major customer for Canadian crude.

While TransCanada faces new delays on Energy East, the company is awaiting final approvals from Nebraska on its Keystone XL pipeline, which would ship oilsands crude from Alberta directly to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Hansen said the successful Indigenous group might partner with an outside company, but hopefully not with Clearwater. “Hopefully we may be part of it somehow,” he said.

According to Dominic LeBlanc, the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, the fourth licence will mark the first time an Indigenous community has participated in an offshore fishery. “Enhancing access to this fishery within the current total allowable catch provides an opportunity to broaden the access and benefits from this public resource while respecting the best available science,” he said in a statement. “Today, we are taking a powerful step toward reconciliation.”

For its part, Clearwater said it is still analyzing the government’s decision.

The company declined a request for an interview.