The pre-trial conference into the Husky environmental charges took place Tuesday afternoon at North Battleford Provincial Court.
Provincial Crown lawyer Matthew Miazga, federal Crown lawyers Carol Carlson and Stephen Jordan as well as Husky defence lawyer Brad Gilmour appeared before Judge Lorna Dyck, with the focus on case management.
The conference, which took place off the record and which was closed to the public, took up most of the afternoon.
The indication is that it was a productive meeting, but Judge Dyck said it was "felt more work needs to be done" on the file.
As a result, case management has been adjourned to Feb. 4, 2019 at 1:30 pm in North Battleford provincial court.
That next appearance will likely be much the same with discussions continuing to happen behind closed doors.
"There will be a similar process to what happened today, with a view towards moving the case forward one way or another," said Miazga to reporters outside the courthouse.
"I know that it seems like it's taking a long time, but as you can appreciate it's a pretty complicated situation. A lot of people are affected by what happened. There's a lot of different options as far as the court goes for resolution of the file, and all those have to be considered."
The charges are all in connection to the July, 2016, oil spill into the North Saskatchewan River near Maidstone. The previous appearances in the case have all taken place in Lloydminster provincial court. The charges have been before the courts since March of this year.
Both Husky Energy Inc. and Husky Oil Operations Ltd. face nine federal counts: one count of allowing the deposit of a deleterious substance, namely crude oil, under s.40(2) of the Fisheries Act, seven counts of not taking reasonable measures to prevent the deposit of a deleterious substance under s. 40 (3)(e) of the Fisheries Act, and one count of permitting a substance harmful to migratory birds under the federal Migratory Birds Convention Act. Husky Oil Operations Ltd. also faces one charge under the provincial Environmental Management and Protection Act.
The provincial charge as well as the seven counts under s. 40(3)(e) of the Fisheries Act are summary offences; on the other two counts the federal Crown is continuing to reserve election.
No trial dates have been set as of yet; Judge Dyck said there is still no final determination on where the trial would occur.
