Majority in B.C. want Harper to delay or kill Northern Gateway

03/06/14
Author: 
Theophilos Argitis and Andrew Mayeda

A majority of British Columbians want Prime Minister Stephen Harper to reject or delay Enbridge Inc. (ENB)’s Northern Gateway pipeline amid concern the project could lead to oil spills, a Bloomberg-Nanos poll shows. Thirty-four percent of respondents want the Canadian government to block the C$6.5 billion ($6 billion) project, which would ship crude from Alberta’s oil sands to the B.C. coast for export to Asia, and 33 percent want it delayed for further review. Twenty-nine percent say they want it approved, according to the poll. With two weeks to go before the deadline for a government decision on Gateway, the poll shows environmentalists and aboriginal groups have more credibility on the project than Enbridge and the Harper government, making it harder for pipeline proponents to win support in Canada’s westernmost province.