NOTICE OF HEARING
APPLICATION NO. 1480230 
NOVA GAS TRANSMISSION LTD.
NEERLANDIA/CORBETT FIELDS

Take Notice that the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB/Board) will hold a public hearing of Application No. 1480230 at the EUB Calgary Office, 640 - 5 Avenue SW, Calgary, Alberta, commencing on Monday, May 28, 2007, at the hour of 1:30 p.m. All interveners to this proceeding must be present at the commencement of the hearing to register their appearance.

Nature of the Application
NOVA Gas Transmission Ltd. (NGTL) submitted an application in accordance with Part 4 of the Pipeline Act for approval to construct and operate a pipeline for the purpose of transporting natural gas from Legal Subdivision (LSD) 12, Section 6, Township 61, Range 5, West of the 5th Meridian to LSD 6, Section 1, Township 62, Range 8, West of the 5th Meridian. The proposed pipeline would be approximately 26.5 kilometres (km) in length with a maximum outside diameter of 404.6 millimetres (mm) and would transport natural gas with a maximum H ₂ S concentration of 0.0 moles per kilomole (0.0 per cent).  The proposed pipeline would be located approximately 6 km south/southwest of Fort Assiniboine.

Additional Information
To obtain additional information or a copy of the application, contact
NOVA Gas Transmission Ltd.
450 – 1 Street SW
Calgary, Alberta T2P 5H1
Attention: Darlene Maier
Telephone: (403) 920-5108
Fax: (403) 920-2391

A copy of the application is available for viewing at the EUB’s Calgary office and the EUB’s St. Albert Field Centre:

EUB Information Services
Main Floor, 640 - 5 Avenue SW
Calgary, Alberta T2P 3G4
Telephone: (403) 297-8190

St. Albert Field Centre
Main Floor, 30 Sir Winston Churchill Avenue
St. Albert, Alberta T8N 3A3
Telephone: (780) 460-3800

The application is also available on the EUB website at www.ercb.ca: What’s New: Current Projects: Application 1480230.

For information about EUB procedures, contact
Applications Branch, Facilities Applications Group
Attention: Tiffany Novotny
Telephone: (403) 297-2084
Fax: (403) 297-4117
E-mail: tiffany.novotny@gov.ab.ca

To Register an Intervention
Any party intending to register as an intervener with respect to the hearing of Application No. 1480230 shall file a submission on or before 4:00 p.m., Wednesday, February 28, 2007. Send one copy of your submission to the applicant at the name and address above and thirteen paper copies and one electronic version to:

Tiffany Novotny, Applications Coordinator
Applications Branch, Facilities Applications Group
Alberta Energy and Utilities Board
640 - 5 Avenue SW
Calgary, Alberta T2P 3G4
Email: tiffany.novotny@gov.ab.ca

Interested parties must send their electronic submission by e-mail or on CD to the other parties involved and to the EUB at tiffany.novotny@gov.ab.ca or the address above. Text documents must be converted from an electronic source or scanned to allow for a searchable image. Please label your electronic files in the following format: YYYY-MM-DD-Party Name-Subject Matter, an example of a properly labeled file would be 2007-02-16-EUB-Notice of Hearing.

If you are unable to provide your submission electronically please contact Tiffany Novotny at (403) 297-2084 for further direction.

Notes
Any submission filed shall contain the following:

(a) a concise statement indicating
  
     (i) the manner in which the intervener’s rights may be directly and adversely affected by a decision of the Board on the proceeding,

     (ii) the nature and scope of the intervener’s intended participation,

     (iii) the disposition of the proceeding that the intervener advocates, if any,

     (iv) the facts the intervener proposes to show in evidence,

     (v) the reasons why the intervener believes the Board should decide in the manner that the intervener advocates, and

     (vi) the intervener’s efforts, if any, to resolve issues associated with the proceeding directly with the applicant;

(b) the name, address in Alberta, telephone number, fax number and, if available, e-mail address of the intervener;

(c) if the intervener is represented by a representative, the name, address in Alberta, telephone number, fax number and, if available, e-mail address of the representative; and

(d) if the intervener is an unincorporated organization, the nature of the intervener’s membership.

If you have an interest in this matter, you are required to make a submission with respect to this application even if you have previously filed a submission with the Board or with NGTL on this application.

If there are no submissions received, this hearing may be cancelled and the EUB will continue to process the application without further notice or without a hearing.

Submissions relating exclusively to compensation for land usage are not dealt with by the EUB but may be referred to the Alberta Surface Rights Board.

Costs/Budgets
As this is an application pursuant to the Pipeline Act, the Board’s costs rules for energy applications will apply.  These rules will generally apply to landowners along the pipeline route who qualify as “local interveners”. For more information on local intervener cost recovery, please refer to Directive 31A, Guidelines for Energy Cost Claims.  

As this hearing may also raise issues related to utility rate issues, the Board will also consider cost applications pursuant to its utility costs rules. Parties that do not qualify as local interveners under the energy costs rules may apply for costs pursuant to Directive 31B, Guidelines for Utility Cost Claims.  Parties intending to claim costs under the utility costs rules must include in their submission a statement describing the party’s eligibility for cost recovery in light of the “business interest” rule contained in Section 55(2) (h.1) of the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board Rules of Practice.

Depending upon the submissions received on February 28, 2007, the Board may require those parties intending to claim utility costs to file budgets pursuant to Section 3 of Guide 31B. The Board will advise interested parties of its budget requirements in due course.

Agreed Statement of Facts/Issues List
ATCO Pipelines (ATCO) and AltaGas Ltd. (AltaGas) have already informed the Board of their intention to participate in the hearing for this application. By way of letter dated February 14, 2007 the Board requested NGTL, ATCO and AltaGas to provide the EUB with an agreed statement of facts and an issues list by March 12, 2007. These materials will also be available for viewing on the EUB’s website at www.ercb.ca: What’s New: Current Projects: Application 1480230. Other interveners who wish to comment on the agreed statement of facts and issues list may include those comments in their April 18, 2007 submissions.

Board Approved Hearing Schedule
The following is the schedule for the proceeding:

February 28, 2007	Deadline to register an intervention
March 12, 2007	Deadline for Agreed Statement of Facts and issues lists from NGTL, ATCO and AltaGas
March 21, 2007	Deadline for Interveners and Board Information Requests (IRs) to NGTL
April 4, 2007	Deadline for NGTL responses to IRs
April 18, 2007	Interveners to file hearing submissions
May 2, 2007	Deadline for Board and NGTL’s IRs to Interveners
May 16, 2007	Deadline for Intervener responses to IRs
May 22, 2007	Deadline for rebuttal from NGTL
May 28, 2007	Hearing Commences

In accordance with Section 12 of the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board Rules of Practice, all documents filed in respect of this proceeding must be placed on the public record unless otherwise ordered by the Board.

In accordance with Section 23.1 of the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board Rules of Practice, a person who intends to raise a question of constitutional law before the Board must give notice in accordance with Section 12 of the Administrative Procedures and Jurisdiction Act and its regulation.

In accordance with Section 38 of the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board Rules of Practice, witnesses must give evidence under oath or affirmation.

Issued at Calgary, Alberta, on February 16, 2007.

ALBERTA ENERGY AND UTILITIES BOARD
Douglas A. Larder, Q.C., General Counsel