By Roy L Hales
Local residents stoppeded Kinder Morgan from working on Burnaby Mountain Conservation Forest this morning. Four company workers attempted to access the area where they had been clear cutting trees before the City of Burnaby shut their operation down on September 2. The Kinder Morgan workers abandoned the attempt after being “shouted out,” and tried to access by another route. When this failed, they left.
Local residents stopped Kinder Morgan from working
People have been camping out on the mountain for the past two or three weeks, keeping watch in case Kinder Morgan came back.
This morning’s confrontation would not have occurred if the National Energy Board (NEB) had not, for the first time in its 55 year history, decided to override Municipal bylaws. They gave Burnaby orders to let Kinder Morgan Proceed.
Burnaby counsel Greg McDade does not believe the NEB has the authority to do this.
“We believe that is wrong – no federally appointed panel should have that power, it doesn’t exist in the NEB Act, and it has never been claimed before by any federal tribunal,” McDade said in a press release yesterday. “This is a very serious question that a higher court needs to decide. This is about more than the Conservation Area. We believe this is an important precedent for all municipalities, and that under the Canadian constitution, provincial and municipal environmental laws have a role to play.”
Kinder Morgan hopes to triple the size of its pipeline that carries raw bitumen from the Alberta tar sands to the company’s terminal in Westridge.
Most British Columbians Oppose The Project
Though most British Columbians oppose the project, Stephen Harper’s NEB attempted to “fast-track” the application. New Democrat MP Kennedy Stewart, the Business Council of British Columbia, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Canadian Natural Resource Alliance, the City of Fort St. John, Dogwood Initiative and the Okanagan Upcycling Resource Society were among the 468 applicants who were not allowed to participate in the review.
McDade discovered that people opposing this project were to submit written statements to the National Energy Board, with no assurance the panel will even read them.
“What we have here is a mere paperwork exercise,” concluded McDade. “It is not a hearing and it is not public.”
The pipeline company has yet to answer many of the written questions Burnaby, and the City of Vancouver and even the Province of British Columbia submitted to the NEB.
The Union of British Columbia Municipalities felt it necessary to pass resolutions calling on the NEB to compel Kinder Morgan to answer questions and asking the province to conduct “its own Environmental Assessment process for the Trans Mountain Expansion Project, which should include sufficient opportunity for meaningful participation by all interested British Columbians.”
The questions remain unanswered.
Prepared To Allow Non-invasive Work
When the city of Burnaby stopped Kinder Morgan from clear cutting its trees last month, Mayor Corrigan issued a press release stating, “We were prepared to allow them to access this conservation land for non-invasive work that could be repaired over time, but absolutely not to do what they arrived this morning to do – to cut down trees to create helicopter landing pads and sites for drilling bore holes on this protected land.”
According to Karl Perrin, a spokesperson for Burnaby Residents Opposing KM Expansion (Broke), the NEB has given Kinder Morgan until December first to obtain the samples needed before it is possible to say if they can drill through the mountain.
“I’m not sure if that deadline can be extended or not, but we are hoping to prevent them from successfully getting the samples,” said Perrin.
He added that some Burnaby residents are nervous about getting arrested. Others are expecting lockdowns and confrontation.
Ian Anderson, the president of Kinder Morgan Canada, has said if there are too many delays his company may return its focus to its existing route through Burnaby’s Westridge neighborhood in order to meet deadlines set by the National Energy Board.
“We see it as a threat,” said Perrin. “Kinder Morgan was saying if you do not agree to us putting a pipeline through the mountain, we’re going to put it through your neighbourhood. And our response is ‘no you’re not going to put it through the neighborhood, your not going to put it through the neighborhood, your not going to put it anywhere. It’s just not going to happen.’”
Click on this link to access a podcast of my interview with Karl Perrin.
(Image at top of page: The crowd at the Stop Kinder Morgan protest rally, on Burnaby Mountain Park. September 13th 2014. – Courtesy Mark Klotz, CC By SA, 2.0)