The 141-page decision on the controversial Line 9 comes some four months after the federal regulator held public hearings on the Calgary-based company's proposal.

"People have serious concerns about the safety of this pipeline because it's old and leaky," said Gillian McEachern a spokeswoman for Environmental Defence, which had called on the NEB to require Enbridge to carry out hydrostatic testing, which uses water to check for cracks and breaches.

New rules helped the NEB prevent the general public from participating in the Line 9 hearings – forcing anyone who wanted to even write a letter to fill out a 9 page application for permission to do so.

The gutting of Canada's long-standing federal environmental laws over the past two years meant Line 9 was the first major project to be exempt from undergoing an environmental assessment. That left the public and the NEB without critical independent information about the risks of the project.