coalspur awaits aer decision

Interesting read. Decision could be as soon as 14 days

Tyler Waugh

Thu, Jan 16, 2014

Coalspur Mines Ltd. has reached deals with intervening parties and is hoping an Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) panel will render a decision on its Vista Coal applications in a matter of weeks, not months.

Richard Tremblay, vice president of operations for Coalspur, said in an opening statement at a Jan. 13 panel hearing held at the Crestwood Hotel in Hinton that the company respectfully requests a decision in 14 days or less.
“The timing of the regulatory process engaged in response to Coalspur’s applications has been a matter of considerable challenge for the company,” Tremblay said in asking for a decision within the next two weeks. “We believe this is sufficient time to consider all the pertinent evidence from this short hearing and ultimately render a decision.”
AER panels generally have 90 days to render a decision from the close of a hearing. Darin Barter, senior advisor in the office of public affairs for AER, said the clock generally begins when all information requests have been fulfilled and the panel declares a formal end to the hearing.
Coalspur said that, historically, in the absence of interveners, the ERCB often rendered its decision one to two weeks following the withdrawal of all interveners and cancellation of the hearing.
“In the case of Coalspur, our permit application has already been reviewed by the AER and deemed technically complete and, although a hearing was held, there were no full interveners and as a result very little additional evidence was introduced that the AER will need to consider before making its decision,” said the company in response to an email question. “In the more usual hearing scenario involving interveners, the AER would have had far more additional evidence to consider before making its decision, and the lengthy 90 day timeline would be justified. Although we have been planning on a 90-day timeline from the close of the hearing as a worst case scenario, a shorter timeline would be advantageous because we will be able to work on getting the remaining permits into place sooner and completing our financing efforts, resulting in no further delays to our planned start of construction this summer.”
The panel of three people heard a brief presentation from Joan Murray-Kehr, a Hinton area resident who was granted limited intervener status. Colleague Rocky Notnes presented on her behalf, speaking against the permit applications for socio-economic reasons (see more about Murray-Kehr’s presentation in the story below).
AER counsel also used the hearing to pose follow up questions to Coalspur’s application submissions. The questions ranged from environmental issues like selennium, mitigation plans for water quality issues and habitat for particular species, logistical and economic questions about why a dragline model was chosen and the mining pattern, to socio-economic issues like impacts on local support services, tax and royalty estimates and where Coalspur will source and house its workforce.
The hearing lasted less than a day.
The AER originally granted intervener status to three First Nations groups - the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation, the Whitefish Lake First Nation and the Ermeniskine Nation – as well as Tourmaline Oil Corp.. Deals were reached ahead of hearings for Alexis, Whitefish and Ermeniskine, and the hearing with Tourmaline was halted minutes after it was opened when a deal was reached.
— Hinton, Alberta

http://hintonvoice.com/coalspur-awaits-aer-decision-p2626-73.htm