Mr. Speaker, the National Energy Board, NEB, will establish a participant funding program, PFP, as provided by part 19 of the Jobs and Economic Growth Act, which received royal assent on July 12, 2010. The PFP will be modeled on the PFP offered by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, and would apply to public hearing processes for major energy projects. Detailed PFP eligibility and application guidelines will be posted on the NEB website following necessary approvals. The NEB considers environmental matters in all of its decisions regarding energy facilities. Most of those decisions also trigger a federal environmental assessment under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, CEAA, and the NEB ensures that a federal EA is conducted according to the CEAA.
All NEB hearings and environmental assessments are public; the NEB always tries to schedule public hearings in locations near affected communities, to make it as convenient as possible for interested persons to participate in the hearing. Furthermore, the NEB currently performs its own environmental assessments and has the full required expertise to do so. At the moment, the board has approximately 50 staff dedicated to environmental, socio-economic, lands and stakeholder engagement. It is important to note that Bill C-9, the Jobs and Economic Growth Act, will not create an overload of work for the NEB. In this context, presently, the NEB does not anticipate it will be necessary to increase the number of staff working in this area.
With regard to appeal mechanisms, any decisions relating to environmental matters made by the board will be included and become part of a decision of the board made either pursuant to section 52 or 58 of the National Energy Board Act, hereinafter referred to as the act. An individual or other interested party, wishing to appeal a decision of the board may, pursuant to subsection 21(1) of the act, request that the board review the decision in question. Should the board proceed with a review and subsequently determine a change to its decision and/or certificate or order is warranted, the board has powers, under subsection 21(2) of the act, to vary these instruments on its own for section 58 orders, or subject to the approval of the Governor in Council in the case of a section 52 certificate. An individual or other interested party may also appeal a decision or order of the board, including a review decision of the board, discussed abov), to the Federal Court of Appeal on a question of law or of jurisdiction. However, the person must first obtain leave to appeal from the Federal Court of Appeal.
