Terry Beech to represent federal Liberals again in contentious Burnaby riding

Terry Beech, the Burnaby Liberal MP whose riding is home to Kinder Morgan’s export terminal, will once again carry his party’s banner in the 2019 election.

The Liberal Party re-nominated Beech at a meeting for the Burnaby-North Seymour riding on Thursday night.

Anti-pipeline protesters gathered outside the event.

Demonstrator Elan Gibson said she doesn’t understand why Beech has sided with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over the pipeline, despite deep local opposition.

“This is such a mistake,” she said. “We have got to let people know that this has got to stop.”

Beech said he plans to listen to opponents of the project in the run-up to the election.

“When you run for office and put your name on a ballot, you don’t decide what your priorities are. The community decides what your priorities are,” Beech said.

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Beech currently serves as parliamentary secretary for fisheries, oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard. He is a former Nanaimo city councillor and an entrepreneur.

Beech has felt the heat at points from his constituents, after telling voters on the campaign trail that Trudeau would change the process for reviewing pipeline applications.

The Trudeau government did introduce reforms to that process earlier this year, moving to transform the National Energy Board (NEB) into the Canadian Energy Regulator and to create a new Impact Assessment Agency to review environmental, health and Indigenous concerns.

However, the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion was allowed to proceed under the old process, with the addition of a three-member ministerial review panel that toured the country to hear concerns.

The pipeline was approved by the NEB in May 2016, subject to 157 conditions, and by the federal cabinet in November 2016.

Ottawa agreed to buy the pipeline from Kinder Morgan in May, after the company threatened to pull out over delays and opposition.