EDMONTON – Shell Canada is trying to “sneak” its Jackpine project past regulators before the regional plan is complete, and the $12-billion mine expansion should be delayed for a year, a review panel was told in the final day of hearings into the project 100 km northeast of Fort McMurray.
The company came under heavy fire Wednesday, partly because its plan to move the Muskeg River, in order to mine the riverbed, runs counter to a 2008 provincial plan calling for protection of the watershed.
First Nations also said Shell’s science is “biased”and “full of gaps,” while the company’s refusal to set aside conservation land to offset habitat destruction drew fire from federal interveners.
Environmentalists rejected the company’s claim there will be “no unacceptable, long-term environmental effects” after decades of mining.
