Quebec City, April 26, 2006 – The first part of the public hearing on the TransCanada Pipelines Limited and Petro-Canada Cacouna Energy Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Terminal Project will be held on Monday, May 8, at 7:00 p.m. in the Congrès B suite at Hôtel Universel, 311 boulevard. de l’Hôtel-de-Ville in Rivière-du-Loup. The hearing will continue during the following days as required by the public and the Panel.
The Honourable Rona Ambrose, federal Minister of the Environment and Minister responsible for the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, and the President of the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE), Mr. William J. Cosgrove, have appointed Mr. Jean-Thomas Bernard to join the BAPE panel and form the joint review panel. The BAPE Panel is made up of Mr. Michel Germain, Chair, and John Haemmerli, Commissioner.
THE CANADA-QUEBEC COOPERATION AGREEMENT
The public review of the TransCanada Pipelines Limited and Petro-Canada Cacouna Energy LNG Terminal Project is being conducted under the Canada-Quebec Agreement on Environmental Assessment Cooperation signed by the Ministers of the Environment for Canada and Quebec in 2004. Included in the provisions of the agreement is the possibility to establish a joint review panel that can conduct its work simultaneously with the panel set up by the BAPE.
The objective of the Canada-Quebec Agreement on Environmental Assessment Cooperation is to foster cooperation and coordination between the parties concerning the environmental assessment of a project submitted for environmental assessment by Canada and Quebec to meet the requirements of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and the Québec Environment Quality Act. For participants in this public hearing, participation is identical to that for a public hearing held under the BAPE’s responsibility since it meets the BAPE’S Operating Procedure requirements for the conduct of public hearings.
TWO-PART HEARING
1. Get informed
The public hearing includes two parts. During the first part of the hearing, held in the presence of the proponent and resource people invited to provide answers to participants’ questions, the public and the Panel have the opportunity to obtain information about the project and to understand all aspects of it.
2. Express your views
During the second part of the hearing, set to begin on Monday, June 12, at the Cacouna parish hall, located on the second floor at 425, rue de l’Église, in Cacouna, the Panel will receive opinions and suggestions from the public. It will hear any person, organization, group or municipality wishing to speak out about the project. This participation can take the form of a written or verbal presentation.
WHERE CAN DOCUMENTATION ON THE PROJECT BE CONSULTED?
Project documents can be consulted at the BAPE office in Quebec City, at the Bibliothèque centrale de l’Université du Québec à Montréal and at the following places:
Bibliothèque municipale Françoise-Bédard, 67, rue du Rocher, Rivière-du-Loup;
Bureau municipal de Cacouna, 415, rue Saint-Georges, Cacouna;
Biblio-Cacouna, 420, rue du Couvent, Cacouna;
Centre administratif municipal de la municipalité de l’Isle-Verte, 141, rue Saint-Jean-Baptiste, L’Isle-Verte.
One can also consult the BAPE Web site regarding the project at www.bape.gouv.qc.ca as well as the Canadian Environmental Assessment Registry, which contains information on the joint review panel, at www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca.
For additional information, please contact Ms. Monique Gélinas, Coordinator of the Panel Secretariat, Communications Officer, at (418) 643-7447 or toll free at 1(800) 463-4732, Extension 423. The Panel can also be reached by e-mail at the following address: cacouna@bape.gouv.qc.ca.
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Source:
Jean-Sébastien Fillion, Communications Officer
(418) 643-7447, extension 538 or 1(800) 463-4732
cacouna@bape.gouv.qc.ca
