Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre will be first to speak at the hearings on behalf of the Montreal Metropolitan Community just days after he called for a suspension of the hearings upon learning that federal energy officials met with a former premier lobbying for TransCanada.
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Supporters and opponents of the Energy East pipeline gathered Monday morning outside the building where the National Energy Board hearings are set to begin.
A protester ran screaming towards the commissioners minutes before the hearings were to begin.
About 150 people protested against the pipeline outside the downtown Montreal venue where the hearings were scheduled to take place.
Michel Trepanier, president of a large union of construction workers, says his members could benefit for five years from projects related to the pipeline.
But it was countered by a chorus of “we want to drink water”, by protesters concerned about the project’s potential impact on the environment.
The hearings are set for all week in Montreal before moving to Quebec City the week of October 3.
“It’s a matter of having answers”, Coderre said, referring to both the Charest affair and the Radio-Canada investigation.
The Energy East project is a 4,500-kilometre pipeline that would see crude oil transported from Alberta to Eastern Canada.
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Montreal is the third of 10 scheduled stops across the country to hold hearings on the pipeline.
