Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in Vancouver on Thursday evening for a roundtable on clean technology and a Liberal fundraiser.
However, he’s expected to be greeted by hundreds of anti-pipeline protesters at both locations.
WATCH: Pipeline protesters gather in Vancouver as PM visits B.C.
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The protesters were expected to gather at the Vancouver Art Gallery and march to the Sheraton Wall Centre where the fundraiser is being held.
As many as 200 anti-pipeline protesters had gathered at the art gallery at about 5:45 p.m.
Protesters began marching just before 6 p.m.
They then gathered outside the Sheraton Wall Centre.
The pipeline was approved by the Trudeau government in 2016 but protesters say it will raise the risk of oil spills in the Burrard Inlet and can’t be completed if the government is to meet its climate change commitments to cut Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions another 200-million tons a year by 2030.
Trudeau first made his way to Victoria to meet with the Canadian Coast Guard to discuss marine safety and spill prevention.
WATCH: Trudeau doubles down on pipeline, says it’s in the national interest
Furor over the pipeline has ramped up in recent weeks, with around 200 people arrested near Kinder Morgan’s Burnaby, B.C., marine terminal in the last month; Trudeau faced protesters at a town hall in Nanaimo in February and their ranks have grown in the days since.
WATCH: Trudeau says he’s ‘focused on doing the right thing’ with pipeline
On Friday, Trudeau is set to visit Alberta’s oil sands to tour a Suncor facility, a company whose CEO complained two months ago that Canada’s regulatory regime and uncompetitive tax structure would keep his company from investing any further in this country.
WATCH GLOBAL NEWS COVERAGE OF PIPELINE PROTESTS:
— With files from The Canadian Press