EDMonTON — Critics of a proposed pipeline project from the Fort McMurray region to Edmonton want to know why the provinces energy regulator seems determined to rush the projects public review.

The process is being rushed for the benefit of TransCanada to the detriment of landowners, said lawyer Keith Wilson, who represents businesses and farmers along the route.

Hearings opened Monday on the Grand Rapids plan for two new lines half-owned by TransCanada that would have a combined peak capacity of more than one million barrels a day — more volume than Enbridges proposed Northern Gateway project.

Its the first hearing the Alberta Energy Regulator has held since replacing the Energy Resources Conservation Board and taking over duties from the provinces Environment Department.

Wilson said the new regulator is hobbling public participation through tight timelines.

He points out that because the new hearings combine issues that used to be dealt with separately — the Grand Rapids hearings involve more than 90 different approvals under several different pieces of legislation — the burden on members of the public wishing to address them is greater than ever.

Its a monumental task to landowners to respond to all that information.

TransCanada has changed its application four times since originally submitting it, the most recent version being released four weeks ago, Wilson added.

(The process) gave TransCanada well over a year to work with the regulator on the process and now that its time for the landowners to participate in the process they were given only a matter of weeks.

important information illuminating concerns isnt even included in the application, Wilson said.

As well, lawyers have been given a maximum of two hours to cross-examine TransCanada officials, although the panel chairman said hed be flexible with that.

One of the things you learn as a lawyer early on is that if a witness knows theres a time limit, they just stonewall you — they just be evasive, they forget, theyre slow, they run the clock on you, Wilson said.

Regulator spokesman Darin Barter said the new approach is more complex than the old one.

Were going to see more applications discussed within the context of a single hearing, he said. It really is an expanded role.

Its typical for a flurry of information to come in at the last minute, he said.

This is very typical for a hearing. I dont think weve been in a situation wher were pushing people along. The hearing will take as long as it takes.

However, Barter acknowledged time limits — included in the legislation that created the new regulator — are intended to keep the hearing focused.

We need a hearing thats going to be defined in length, he said. We want to make sure that the issues that need to be brought forward are brought forward and we dont see a lot extraneous issues that dont relate directly to the application.

The hearing has been scheduled for three days in June and two weeks in mid-July.

Dalton Trenholm, a farmer and landholder along the proposed route, is concerned about TransCanadas plans to dig up topsoil this summer and not fully replac it until 2017.

This is a long time to leave our topsoil out there — our resource — to collect weeds, suffer erosion, all of these things that we have to deal with when theyre completed.

He said the companys changing mitigation plans have hobbled his attempts to articulate his concerns.

We had to have everything in here by the sixth of June and we find out that as of last week some time that theres changes.

Wilson suggested the new regulator isnt making a great impression at the Grand Rapids hearings.

This is the very first hearing of this new super-regulator that the governments been bragging about and so far were not off to a good start.