TORONTO, January 10, 2012 − York University Professor Dayna Nadine Scott is available to media to comment on the hearings which started today into Enbridge’s proposal to build the Northern Gateway Pipeline from Bruderheim, Alberta, to Kitmat, B.C.
A federal Joint Review Panel with representatives from the National Energy Board and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency is expected to deliver a decision on the project in Fall of next year.
Scott, an associate professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and in York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies, is an expert in environmental law and administrative law, and conducts research on the environmental regulation of oil and gas industries in Canada.
“We have a legislative structure in place for environmental assessment in Canada, which includes guarantees of procedural fairness. The mandate of the panel is to assess the environmental effects of the proposed project and to determine whether or not it should proceed based on an expert − and independent − assessment, after hearing the evidence. For the Harper government to now try to pre-empt the determination of the Joint Review Panel by inserting its own view of the national interest is irresponsible,” says Scott. “The question of who will benefit and who will bear the costs is a legitimate consideration in coming to an honest assessment of the net benefit of a development project.”
York University is a leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto – Canada’s most international city. The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 55,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 250,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 10 Faculties and 28 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries. This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.
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Media Contacts:
Janice Walls, Media Relations, York University, 416 736 2100 x22101 / wallsj@yorku.ca
