The Vancouver Sun reports in its Tuesday edition that the federal government is expected to launch a new round of consultations with Northern B.C. first nations on Enbridge's $7.9-billion Northern Gateway pipeline. The Sun's Peter O'Neil writes that the move would be in response to a June ruling by the Federal Court of Appeal that quashed the former Conservative government's 2014 approval of the proposed pipeline from Alberta to Kitimat. Ottawa is facing a court-imposed Thursday deadline to determine whether it will appeal. The June court decision found that the former government's consultations with affected first nations were "brief, hurried and inadequate." The two judges writing for the majority estimated that a new outreach process would only require about four months of talks. The government is facing "very difficult issues" in relation to the decision, Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr told reporters Monday. One of the complicating factors is the government's 2015 campaign promise to bring in a moratorium on oil tanker traffic on the Northern B.C. coast. Such a move would prevent the project from proceeding, though the government has never specified how long a moratorium would be in place.