Don’t get me wrong: I’m a supporter of Kinder Morgan’s plans to expand the Trans Mountain pipeline. I believe it’s an important piece of infrastructure that will stimulate the Alberta economy and provide jobs, both in this province and in British Columbia.
At the same time, I am concerned about the degree of hostility to this project being shown by a great many people on the West Coast. That hostility shows no signs of abating, judging by what took place on Saturday in B.C.’s Lower Mainland.
In Burnaby, thousands gathered to protest the pipeline project. In downtown Vancouver, several hundred people were on hand to call for the project to move forward.
READ MORE: Thousands march in Burnaby to protest Trans Mountain pipeline expansion
Watch below: On March 10, 2018, Nadia Stewart filed this report after thousands marched in Burnaby to protest the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.
There is no project in recent memory that has been subject to more scrutiny than Trans Mountain. Even though the original pipeline — which follows the same general routing — has been active since 1953, the proposal to nearly triple its capacity has generated considerable arguments and controversy.
B.C.’s minority government, with support from the Green Party that’s keeping it in power, has joined with the City of Burnaby, a number of Indigenous groups and a noisy collection of citizens to vow to prevent the pipeline from being built.
- Calgary fatal stabbing victim ‘gave himself’ to help those fleeing war in Ukraine
- Innovative nursing education: Mannequins lead the way in Alberta
- Calgary police looking for suspect in March southeast hotel homicide
- Alberta introduces legislation to reduce high power-bill fee surcharge for Calgarians
Those who support the pipeline include businesses and economic groups, and members of the public who believe the two-year study of the proposal by the National Energy Board, the 157 conditions which have been placed on the developer — Kinder Morgan — and the improved technology of pipelines and of ships designed to carry crude oil, are enough to assure us that environmental safety standards can be met. Many in this group are upset that environmental interests in the United States are underwriting the protest movement.
We have two governments, one in British Columbia, the other in Alberta — which both call themselves New Democrats — who are fighting over whether or not the project should proceed. We have a Liberal government in Ottawa which has approved the project but which doesn’t seem eager to do whatever it takes to move the project forward. And we have an increasingly noisy United Conservative Party in Alberta, which believes it can parlay its own aggressive support of Trans Mountain into an election victory in 2019.
The outcome is far from assured. It’s not good news for the economy. And it’s an argument that, regardless of the outcome, is going to leave some scars on Confederation, going forward.
And I don’t know if I would want to be a construction worker on this project if it does proceed. I’d be constantly looking over my shoulder, wondering if it’s going to be safe to do my job every day.
Listen below: Cheryl Hurtak from Rally4Resources speaks about separate rallies held on Saturday in B.C.’s Lower Mainland in support of, and in opposition to, the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.
Comments