New lawsuit filed against BC approval of Kinder Morgan Pipeline Expansion

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

OTTAWA – Today, Democracy Watch and the PIPE UP Network applied to the B.C. Supreme Court for an order quashing the approval of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline approval on the basis that more than $550,000 in donations to the B.C. Liberal Party by Kinder Morgan and pipeline-connected companies created an apparent conflict of interest that prohibited Premier Christy Clark, Environment Minister Mary Polak and Natural Gas Development Minister Rich Coleman from deciding the pipeline approval.

Democracy Watch and PIPE UP also contend that the apparent conflict of interest was compounded by the fact that Premier Clark benefited personally from the donations as she received a $50,000 salary each year from the party, a total salary of $300,000, during the same years the donations were made. The conflict of interest was also created because Premier Clark and Cabinet ministers participated in obtaining some of the donations at high-priced, secretive “cash-for-access” fundraising events.

“The Premier may have recently stopped receiving her $50,000 salary each year from the B.C. Liberal Party but that does nothing to erase the conflicts of interest and appearance of bias created by her receiving more than $300,000 in salary from the party during the same years Kinder Morgan and pipeline-connected companies donated more than $550,000 to the party,” said Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch.

Lynn Perrin, a Director of the PIPE UP Network, stated “The fate of the Trans Mountain pipeline, which puts our oceans and rivers at extreme risk, should be decided by people who do not have their hands in the pockets of Kinder Morgan and pipeline-connected companies.”

B.C.’s Conflict of Interest Commissioner in 1993 http://www.coibc.ca/down/opinion/opinion_blencoe_1993.pdf and 2003 http://www.coibc.ca/down/opinion/opinion_hagen_2003.pdf , and the Federal Court of Appeal unanimously in 2009<http://decisions.fca-caf.gc.ca/fca-caf/decisions/en/item/36355/index.do/>, have ruled that political donations by companies and other lobbyists create conflicts of interest that mean politicians can’t make decisions that affect the companies, and we hope the B.C. courts will enforce this key ethical government standard,” said Conacher.

“To stop big money political donations from tainting B.C. politics, all the parties must work together to make changes that match Quebec’s world-leading system by banning donations from corporations, unions and other organizations and limiting individual donations to $100 a year,” said Conacher.

A copy of the lawsuit application and supporting affidavits can be seen here<http://democracywatch.ca/wp-content/uploads/BCKinderMorganCaseApplicJan312017.pdf>.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Duff Conacher, Democracy Watch, Cell: 416-546-3443 Lynn Perrin, PIPE UP Network, Tel: 604-309-9369 Jason Gratl, legal counsel, Tel: 604-317-1919 info@democracywatch.ca<mailto:info@democracywatch.ca?subject=News%20Release%20Feedback>

See below for Backgrounder<http://democracywatch.ca/wp-content/uploads/BkgrnderBCMoneyinPolJan2017.pdf> on flaws in B.C.’s and other Canadian political finance systems, and how to democratize them.

Democracy Watch’s Government Ethics Campaign<http://democracywatch.ca/campaigns/government-ethics-campaign/> and Money in Politics Campaign<http://democracywatch.ca/campaigns/money-in-politics-campaign/>