As a tense court case resumed Friday morning, the Trudeau government extended an olive branch to a First Nation that accused the federal government of failing to consult them on Kinder Morgan's controversial Trans Mountain pipeline.
The Tsleil-Waututh First Nation also argued in court that the National Energy Board (NEB) erred when it failed to adequately assess the impact of increased tanker traffic, which the nation argues will inevitably lead to a devastating oil spill.
[Website editor's note: This article is a useful summary of provincial emission-reduction policies, or rather the lack thereof.]
Provincial premiers boast leadership in the country’s effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but achieving their own lofty ambitions will require political courage and aggressive policies to drive fundamental changes in the way Canadians produce and consume energy.
For the past week, as the final round of NEB hearings for the Kinder Morgan pipeline were about to start, hundreds of people took action to enforce the People’s Injunction.
This government campaigned against broken pipeline reviews, yet they are letting the Kinder Morgan and Energy East reviews move forward -- without including impacts on climate change, without listening to communities, and without respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
CALGARY – The process for reviewing pipeline projects in Canada is in flux, creating severe legal complications for lawyers on both sides of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.
Changes are coming to the regulatory process that will affect Kinder Morgan Inc.’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, adding new regulatory hurdles for a project nearing the end of its current review process.
Moments before Elizabeth May took the stand at the National Energy Board (NEB) hearings for Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, she admitted she was nervous.
“I don’t want to get too angry,” she told National Observer with a smile, organizing a massive stack of documents and pages upon pages of handwritten notes.
Lower Nicola Indian Band (LNIB) chief Aaron Sam was in the Lower Mainland earlier this week, boycotting what he calls a “flawed” environmental assessment process done by the federal government’s National Energy Board (NEB).
“We feel that what the government is going to do is a foregone conclusion,” Aaron told the Heraldin a phone interview.
A leading columnist in Canada's Globe and Mail daily newspaper known in the past to voice concern about the global warming emergency has penned two columns recently in support of Alberta tar sands pipelines, including praising the efforts of the premier of Alberta to sell the construction of these project to an increasingly sceptical and wary public in Canada
Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre and mayors of surrounding cities and boroughs say they are firmly opposed to TransCanada Corp.’s Energy East oil pipeline project, warning that the environmental risk far outweighs any economic benefits.
“They didn’t do their homework, obviously,” Mr. Coderre said on Thursday about Calgary-based TransCanada’s $15.7-billion pipeline that would move 1.1 million barrels of crude a day from Western Canada to East Coast refineries and shipping points and pass through heavily populated areas in the Montreal region.
