Councillor urges shutdown of Trans Mountain construction in Kamloops due to COVID-19 concerns

KAMLOOPS — A Kamloops councillor is calling on federal and provincial officials to call a halt to Trans Mountain (TMX) pipeline expansion construction within city limits.

Denis Walsh says expansion activities are scheduled to begin soon for TMX’s ‘Kamloops Urban Special Project’, which would lay new pipe beneath the Thompson River.

Walsh doesn’t think the project, which will require hundreds of construction workers, is safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is unusual in the fact that these workers… we were told last year, 300 to 500 workers, transient workers that would have to come into our city and find accommodation,” Walsh told CFJC Today Thursday (Apr. 2). “So it’s unlike a work camp.”

“Whether it was a convention, the [annual Watchtower] convention, I think it would be ill-advised to bring that many people from outer areas into our city at this time,” Walsh continued. “It will just put a stress on our healthcare system.”

B.C.’s public health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, has made construction sites exempt from guidelines prohibiting gatherings of 50 or more people.

Henry has also issued guidelines for controlling the spread of COVID-19 in industrial work camps, though Walsh says there are no camps associated with the TMX construction.

“To my mind, these people are not living out in a work camp where Trans Mountain can control what they’re doing,” said Walsh. “They’re going to be living in our community, either in hotels or apartments or something, for a few months or more circulating in our community. That’s the problem.”

Walsh says he has not yet received the support of council for his thoughts on the situation, but regardless, has sent a letter expressing his concerns to Premier John Horgan and Health Minister Adrian Dix, among other government officials.

[Photo: Image Credit: CFJC Today]