Canada's National Energy Board has named a panel to gather comments on TransCanada Corp.'s proposed C$15.7 billion Energy East pipeline network as the federal energy regulator prepares to resume hearings into the project.

The panel will be comprised of four members of the board, known as the NEB, who are independent of the body that will hear the actual application. The panel plans to meet with many of the 200 indigenous peoples groups that will be impacted by the line and review online submissions about the project, the NEB said in a June 5 statement. The comment period on the Energy East hearing ends July 15.

Energy East, which would move 1.1 million barrels of crude daily between the oil sands region in Alberta and a seaport in New Brunswick, is being considered in the same process as the company's Eastern Mainline Expansion which is connected to the project. The 4,500-kilometer Energy East project has been impacted by changes in the NEB process that have been enacted since the government of Justin Trudeau was elected in 2015. Hearings into the project in Montreal were shut down after being disrupted by protestors. The process was halted, the hearing panel was dismissed and a new panel was appointed, which has yet to restart hearings.

The panel which will gather comments in advance of the new hearings consists of NEB members Alain Jolicoeur, Wilma Jacknife, Damien Côté and Ronald Durelle.