Kinder Morgan Expansion project comes with conditions – Premier Christy Clark

Today’s decision by the federal government to reject the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and tankers proposal is an important and hard-fought victory says West Coast Environmental Law – one that paves the way for communities to put a stop to the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain project.

A major expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline that will almost triple the capacity of an existing pipeline carrying oil from Alberta to a Vancouver-area harbor was approved by the Canadian government yesterday.

Trudeau also shelved the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline across northwestern B.C. and said legislation banning tankers on B.C.’s northwest Pacific coast is coming soon.

“You will see the movement continue to escalate in the streets as the number of protests and actions continue to grow, in the courts, and at the ballot box here in (British Columbia) and beyond”, said Sven Biggs of climate group Stand.Earth.

“Without looking at one particular line or one particular company, what we said is we need to get our product to tidewater so that we can get to new markets”, Notley told reporters outside the House of Commons, after a meeting with Trudeau. “When I consider the election promises of this government and the commitments that were made after the election to First Nations people, the decision today does not reflect that”, he said.

Clark said that for the Trans Mountain project, all but two of the conditions have been met. “To fund this change toward a carbon free world, we have to build good jobs and generate economic growth”.

Further, while Alberta’s Premier Rachel Notley was in Ottawa for this announcement, which will most certainly help both the Alberta economy and her sagging popularity, B.C. Premier Christy Clark was back home in Victoria and clearly caught off guard and miffed.

The lack of any formal statement on indigenous rights contradicts a Federal Court of Appeal decision in June which found the parties behind Northern Gateway had failed to adequately consult.

The pipeline would link Alberta to the southern B.C. coast around Vancouver, and is opposed by environmental groups, First Nations communities and local politicians, including Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. “I think we’re going to see a Standing Rock style mass civil disobedience in B.C., but probably also in Manitoba, probably also in Alberta”.

The expanded pipeline is supposed to bring 900,000 barrels of crude oil per day from neighboring Alberta to a terminal on Burrard Inlet, 70,000 more than Keystone XL.

In 2013, she said she had agreed with the Alberta government that none of Alberta’s royalties from oil pipelines would go to B.C. This area spans the Alaska-B.C. border down to the point on B.C.’s mainland adjacent to the northern tip of Vancouver Island, and includes Haida Gwaii.

In announcing approvals for Trans Mountain and Line 3, Trudeau said the projects would create thousands of construction jobs, including 15,000 for Trans Mountain and 7,000 for Line 3.

However, Conservatives say Trans Mountain still faces too many conditions and protests to ever be built.

The construction on the project is scheduled to begin in September 2017, with an in-service date for the twinned pipeline expected in late 2019.

The Liberals offered a supplementary review of the Trans Mountain expansion project, but not a completely new review, as was promised.