"They have not stopped. The process continues," he told
reporters on a conference call.

"There will be a transition as we amend the ways in which
the National Energy Board goes about the process of evaluating
these projects, and we will announce those changes as soon as we
can, but the process continues."

The Liberal government's pledge to toughen up the
environmental review process for oil pipelines had raised the
question of whether existing applications would require
resubmission.

Key projects are TransCanada Corp's application for
the Energy East pipeline to take oil from Alberta and
Saskatchewan to the East Coast, and the expansion of Kinder
Morgan Inc's Trans Mountain Pipeline to the Pacific.

Specifically addressing the Kinder Morgan application, Carr
said the review was going ahead.

He appeared less clear when asked about Energy East: "I
understand that any changes that we make to the process will
have an effect on projects. I know that it's important, and we
will be reviewing the situation and we will give you the results
as soon as we can."
Continued...