City of Burnaby files civil claim against Kinder Morgan

VANCOUVER – The City of Burnbay said in a press release that they have filed a civil claim against Kinder Morgan in Supreme Court.

On Sept. 2, the city said workers from Kinder Morgan entered a conservation area on Burnaby Mountain and cut down trees and bushes. The city said the company ignored a order to cease bylaw contraventions, which prohibits cutting trees and damaging the park.

So now Burnaby will go to court on Sept. 11 to seek a temporary injunction to stop further works damaging the park until the matter can be heard before the court.

A few weeks ago the National Energy Board (NEB) ruled that Kinder Morgan can proceed with necessary studies of its preferred pipeline route through the mountain without the city’s consent.

“There is no requirement … for companies to reach agreement with landowners, the Crown, or otherwise, before exercising the right to access land,” the board stated.

The City of Burnaby will also be seeking a declaration that the NEB ruling does not have constitutional jurisdiction to issue an order to the city that directs or limits its bylaws.

“In spite of Burnaby’s longstanding bylaws put in place to fulfill our citizens’ wishes to protect irreplaceable conservation areas in our city, on September 3 Kinder Morgan cut down 13 ecologically significant trees – the largest of which was 24 metres high – in the Burnaby Mountain Conservation Area,” said Mayor Derek Corrigan in a press release. “These trees cannot be replaced.”

“Kinder Morgan was not entitled to carry out this destructive action, and the fact that they have now stopped their work and have gone back to the National Energy Board to seek an order that would allow them to continue to conduct destructive survey work in the park – including cutting of large trees in forested areas, drilling of bore holes, and constructing a helicopter staging area – demonstrates that they knew they did not have the lawful right to do what they did.”

Corrigan said the city will do everything it can to ensure Kinder Morgan does not return.

“We do not believe that the National Energy Board’s ruling enables Kinder Morgan to defy our laws and we are asking the Supreme Court to confirm this,” he added.