Metro inks park access deal with Kinder Morgan to scout oil pipeline route

Metro Vancouver is bracing for protests in regional parks such as Colony Farm and Surrey Bend after negotiating a deal with Kinder Morgan granting its crews access to plan the route of the proposed Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion.

Regional district staff outline the agreements in a briefing note that will be before Metro mayors at a meeting Friday.

It sets out 10 Metro-owned properties – including portions of newly created Surrey Bend Regional Park, Colony Farm Regional Park and the closed Coquitlam Landfill – where Trans Mountain crews have until Nov. 30 to conduct non-intrusive supervised visual surveys on foot.

Metro has forbidden the use of vehicles, machines or any digging or sampling, and it has reserved the right to terminate access on 24 hours notice, but regional district staff have still flagged the visits as a potential source of conflict with anti-pipeline protesters.