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.
Row after row of empty chairs line the room at the National Energy Board (NEB) hearing in Burnaby, where the hearings concerning the Kinder Morgan pipeline project are being held.
Please forward widely, especially to contacts in the lower mainland, BC.
Sisters, Brothers, and Friends,
Yesterday’s warm-up protest against the Kinder Morgan National Energy Board hearings in Burnaby previews an equally energetic but much larger protest this coming Saturday, 1 p.m., at 4331 Dominion St.
“Trudeau, Keep Your Promises!” said one banner hanging from the Trans-Canada Highway overpass. Another read, “Re-Do Kinder Morgan Review!”
Katzie Nation Chief Susan Miller and her sister Debbie Miller of Katzie First Nation say they stand to lose everything if the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is approved.
Chief Miller said the continued expansion of pipeline projects and shrinking of Indigenous territories represents the ongoing assault on First Nations culture that started with the residential school system.
[Remember rally at the NEB on Saturday, Jan. 23 at 1 pm - see "Events"]
Carrying signs and a marching tune, dozens of people turned up to the Trans Mountain National Energy Board hearings in Burnaby to voice their opposition to the Kinder Morgan project.
The rally was planned days before the hearings and was intended to send a message to the NEB, which was holding final arguments for intervenors inside the Delta Burnaby Hotel and Conference Centre Tuesday.
