May says the Harper government is spending at least $78 million on marine spill studies specifically connected to bitumen, the molasses-like crude that would be shipped in the pipeline between Alberta and British Columbia. Also the documents reveal Ottawa is spending $42 million to study ways to improve weather forecasting in the northern B.C. coastal regions that will be used by oil tankers if the project is approved by the federal Joint Review Panel.

"Some of this money is going to backfill for Enbridge and do the homework it should have done before it went to the Joint Review Panel," said May. "Other money is operational and represents an investment in better weather forecasting for supertanker routes that don't exist yet. We're building an infrastructure as though the project is already approved."