The Joint Review Panel was mandated by the federal and provincial ministers of the Environment in November 2004 to assess the environmental effects of the proposed project.The Government of Canada accepts the joint review panel’s October 2007 findings that the negative effects of this project outweigh the benefits and it is not in the public interest to proceed. Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Transport Canada provided expert advice at the panel hearings. "The decision to accept the panel’s findings is consistent with the Government of Canada’s commitment to protect the environment to ensure the quality of life for Canadians, now and in the future," said the Honourable Laurence Cannon, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities. The Joint Panel received more than two hundred oral and written submissions from June 16 to 30, 2007 in Digby, Nova Scotia and received more than three hundred written comments on the Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed project.
