Province hires Geoff Plant

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - The province is about to cross-examine Enbridge about its Northern Gateway pipeline plans.

The province has hired former attorney general Geoff Plant as BC's legal over-seer at these hearings.

Plant says questioning begins later this morning, "primarily focused on issues relating to Enbridge's financial and corporate capacity to make good the consequences of disastrous spills or accidents."

Plant will be paid $325 an hour.

The premier says she needs an A-team to protect BC's interests. BC is worried about carrying the bulk of the environmental risk with the Northern Gateway with little economic benefit.

Christy Clark says she's still waiting for Alberta to knock on her door with a fair offer.

Wilderness Committee has questions it wants asked

Ben West with the Wilderness Committee has a couple of questions that he feels the government should ask the panel in regards to the environment.

He wants to know more about diluted bitumen and based on what happened in previous disasters, how difficult would a clean-up be.

"The obvious question is what are you going to do differently to deal with this kind of oil spill -- that report from Kalamazoo stated clearly that the environmental protection agency and the local health authorities were unprepared," notes West.

He'd also like to ask Enbridge why the company decided to spend more money on safety only after the Kalamazoo River spill.

"Why [did] Enbridge decide to spend more money when they had a public relations nightmare? Were they not actually providing...the safest possible options to begin with?" asks West.

Earlier this week, BC Environment Minister Terry Lake said he wants to know how spill monitoring and response will be handled, and how to ensure Enbridge would exceed world standards in prevention.

The hearings continue into December.