Dimitri L.: This is Dimitri Lascaris for The Real News in Vancouver, British Columbia. I'm here today with Eugene Kung, a staff lawyer with the West Coast Environmental Law Group. Eugene specializes in aboriginal and natural resources law. Thanks very much for joining us today.
Eugene Kung: Thank you for having me.
Dimitri L.: Eugene, why don't you just start by telling us a little bit about West Coast Environmental Law. What does the organization do? What is the nature of the practice?
Crude exports via supertanker from the Port of Vancouver fell 40 per cent between 2014 and 2016, a decline that has led critics of the $7.4-billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to challenge the need for the project.
In its report last year recommending approval of the Kinder Morgan project, the National Energy Board cited the company’s figures when it said the terminal typically loads five crude tankers a month. It forecast that, with the proposed pipeline expansion, that number could climb to 34 a month depending on demand from shippers.
Roland Willson is a practical man. As chief of the West Moberly First Nation in northeastern B.C., he’s got to be.
“The natural gas industry is the main source of employment,” Willson said over coffee in Victoria this week, before heading into meetings with the B.C. NDP and B.C. Green parties. “It’s a natural resource economy up there.”
FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Peace Valley residents Ken and Arlene Boon, who were cc’ed on Premier Christy Clark’s letter to NDP leader John Horgan earlier this week, have written back to the Premier saying they are confused about some of the points in her letter.
A Federal Court case has cast the spotlight on a hereditary tribal leader’s battle against a liquefied natural gas project in northern British Columbia.
Donnie Wesley argues that he has the rightful claim to be recognized as hereditary head chief of the Gitwilgyoots tribe – one of nine allied tribes of the Lax Kw’alaams First Nation.
VICTORIA — When B.C. Hydro expropriated some of the final parcels of land needed for the Site C project late last year, it also granted brief respite to one of the high-profile opponents of the project, Ken Boon and his wife Arlene.
The Boon property on the north bank of the Peace River straddles the right-of-way for the intended relocation of Highway 29, which will eventually be submerged by the waters rising behind the giant hydroelectric dam.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip is challenging Alberta Premier Rachel Notley on Kinder Morgan. On Tuesday, Premier Notley declared that no NDP/Green government or First Nations objections would stop its construction, saying, "Mark my words, that pipeline will be built, the decisions have been made."
BC Hydro president Jessica McDonald is dismissing a request from the NDP to delay some aspects of the construction of the Site C dam, saying evictions along the banks of the Peace River must proceed by month’s end or the megaproject will be pushed a full year behind schedule and cost an additional $630-million.
