no pipeline, no tankers, no problem 2

Canada can win by saying 'yes' to B.C.'s sustainable future

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BC NDP enters Trans Mountain battleground

The province will join the legal fight against the federal government’s approval of Trans Mountain’s expansion by seeking intervenor status in court proceedings — proceedings that would not be taking place if Trudeau's promise to overhaul the Kinder Morgan review had been kept.

The B.C. government will not allow construction on Crown land until adequate First Nations consultation occurs and is seeking legal advice on its options regarding a lawsuit in BC Supreme Court challenging provincial approval of the expansion.

Every Canadian should be encouraged by this.

British Columbia’s stand against abusing the interests of the people who live there is a stand against such abuse across the nation. The private financial gain that occurs when huge corporations override cultural, economic and environmental needs of society — aided by duplicitous elected officials who do their bidding — is not unique to B.C. and the Trans Mountain expansion project.

Approval not based on facts

As indicated by a number of scientists and prominent politicians, the approval of the pipeline expansion was not based on facts, evidence or the best interest of Canadians. It was approved to support the private financial interests of a Texas-based pipeline company along with a handful of overextended oilsands producers — and the banks who finance them — caught oversupplying a product long past its climate change 'best before' date.

Corporate powers, their lobby groups, Alberta or Ottawa cannot be allowed to circulate erroneous statements portending economic fallout while the B.C. government seeks to fulfill its duty. Such misrepresentations play on legitimate concerns that if the public interest is protected, it will come at grave cost. In this case, these concerns are not warranted and it is irresponsible to fuel them with falsehoods.....

National Energy Board warns of unmet Trans Mountain requirements

Before Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd. can begin construction of its controversial Trans Mountain pipeline expansion in September as planned, the National Energy Board says the company still has some hoops to jump through.

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The NEB also said it has received 452 statements of opposition on the detailed routing of the pipeline expansion, including five from Indigenous groups, and 121 from landowners. A panel of NEB board members is reviewing the statements, and will set up hearings in the fall that will last several months.

In the letter to Mr. Carr, the NEB also noted that the results of a preconstruction audit of Trans Mountain's management systems will be made publicly available in the weeks ahead.

"The intent of the audit was to evaluate whether Trans Mountain had established the necessary oversight measures in the preconstruction phase to manage safety and environmental protection during construction of the project," it said.

B.C. Environment Minister George Heyman said in August that the province has not accepted all of the company's environmental-management plans.

Five were rejected because of inadequate negotiations with First Nations, he said. The NDP government opposes the pipeline expansion and has said it intends to seek intervenor status in a case challenging the project. The Federal Court of Appeal is expected to hear it in October.

A Tiny House to Send a Big Message: Stop Kinder Morgan

Next week, members of the Secwepemc Nation will build the first of ten tiny homes. They will put them directly in the path of the Kinder Morgan TransMountain pipeline.

The traditional territory of the Secwepemc is the largest in B.C. and spans from the Rocky Mountains and Jasper National park in the east to the Fraser River in the west. Secwepemc has never given its consent for Kinder Morgan to cross their lands or waters and in fact have, ‘explicitly and irrevocably’ refused its passage through their territory.

Despite this explicit lack of consent Kinder Morgan continues to try to push its pipeline forward. The pipeline expansion would span 518 km of Secwepemc territory and would pose ongoing threats to the land, to the water, to the salmon, and to the climate. These are just some of the reasons why these tiny houses are being built.

The Secwepemc ‘Tiny House Warriors’ will stand to defend their lands and waters and to showcase the solutions they want for their community. The tiny houses will help members re-connect to the land. They will provide homes for members of their community. And eventually they will produce the clean, renewable energy our world needs when they receive their solar upgrade.....

Ottawa never ‘did the work’ to hear out Indigenous concerns over Trans Mountain pipeline: lawyer

Canada's decision to approve an expansion for the Trans Mountain pipeline was a "one-way street" that ignored the economic and title rights of Indigenous people, a lawyer said on Monday in the Federal Court of Appeal.

Elin Sigurdson outlined arguments against the $7.4-billion project approved last November but now challenged by First Nations, two environmental groups and the cities of Vancouver and Burnaby.

Indigenous groups were required to go to tremendous lengths to ensure all the necessary information about their rights was before the National Energy Board process, Ms. Sigurdson said.

"Yet in return, despite their assurances of genuine engagement on Indigenous rights concerns on the post-NEB phase of the review, Canada never performed the work that would assist them to understand the rights at issue or the impact on [First Nations], nor did the Crown provide responsive feedback," said Ms. Sigurdson, who represents the Upper Nicola Band.

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He said the Tsleil-Waututh came to the table prepared to discuss and consider compromise, as was required under the engagement process, but was stymied on issues it raised repeatedly.

"It encountered officials from Canada who were not decision makers and whose mandates were limited to listening and recording concerns and telling Tsleil-Waututh they would need to 'agree to disagree' on the core issues it raised. That is not the face of compromise."

Earlier on Monday, Chief Ian Campbell of the Squamish First Nation said that the federal government failed to fully consult or gain consent of First Nations for expansion of the pipeline, so they have had little choice but to turn to the courts in an effort to protect their land and water.

Mr. Campbell told a news conference the government didn't adequately study the impacts that a spill of diluted bitumen could have in the band's waters, which isn't good governance.

Kinder Morgan goes rogue, proving it can’t be trusted

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Kinder Morgan, the pipeline company that put it there, patted itself on the back for its “innovative” use of the deterrent mats, which prevent salmon from digging nests in the streambed to spawn. Of course, the only problem is it didn’t have permission to install them. 

But the company went ahead with its plans, although it had not met its conditions, to start construction without the necessary permits. This reckless behaviour is shocking from a company asking for the public’s trust.  

On Sept. 8 the National Energy Board (NEB) sent a letter to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) asking for confirmation that this work, among other measures, would require authorization under the Fisheries Act. It noted Kinder Morgan’s plans, “could constitute serious harm.”

Kinder Morgan posted photos of Swift Creek lined with orange plastic even though DFO had not yet responded. If anybody else had gone into a major salmon-bearing stream and interfered with fish spawning, there would be absolute hell to pay. Violations of the Fisheries Actoften carry tens of thousands of dollars in fines but so far there’s been no penalty at all. 

Are we supposed to just trust that Kinder Morgan knows what it’s doing? With dwindling salmon runs and starving killer whales, the company wants to use untested methods to prevent spawning in 26 streams along its pipeline route. 

Thankfully, those plans were foiled by a concerned citizen, at least for now. Lynn Perrin, an Abbotsford resident and a director of PIPE UP, found the blog and complained to the NEB that Kinder Morgan had started construction without having met its conditions.

That led to a stern letter from the NEB ordering the company not to put any more mats down. But it did not require them to pull out the five which were already in place.

Now Kinder Morgan has asked the regulator to let its fumble slide, a classic tactic of begging forgiveness rather than asking permission. After thumbing its nose at the law by starting construction early and potentially violating the Fisheries Act, the company expects special treatment.

How entitled does a foreign corporation have to be to assume it can get away with this? Maybe the NEB used to take an “ask and it shall be granted” attitude to pipeline companies, but after years of outcry and scandal, the regulator is trying to prove it’s not in bed with industry. It cannot possibly allow Kinder Morgan to carry on as if it hadn’t just taken upon itself to waltz into critical salmon habitats and interrupt spawning.

Trans Mountain could face year-long delay as Kinder Morgan pulls request for fish mats

The company behind the proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion has dropped a request that the National Energy Board allow it to conduct some construction activity on the multi-billion dollar project.

Last week, lawyers representing Kinder Morgan Canada subsidiary Trans Mountain asked the board for permission to install mats to deter fish spawning after the board told it last month to stop doing so.

The lawyers said if the request was not granted, construction on the $7.4-billion project could be delayed by a year.

Lawyer Terri-Lee Oleniuk at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt has now written to the NEB saying the window for “safely and effectively” installing the mats has passed and the company is withdrawing the request.....

Inside Ottawa's rush to dispute science before pipeline approvals

Federal government officials spent two days denying the findings of a scientific paper exploring research into the effects of oilsands pollution in the ocean, a week before the Trudeau Liberals gave the green light to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to the west coast.

Records obtained by National Observer detail how the new study was sent, along with a letter, directly to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. They also show how the references to scientific research would trigger immediate denials in a flurry of emails from officials within government.

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But the project has also infuriated some First Nations, cities and environmental groups worried about a range of issues such as oil spills, carbon pollution and Indigenous rights. B.C. Premier John Horgan's NDP government has joined in the opposition, pledging to use all tools available to protect the province's coastline from threats posed by the project.

The letter sent to Trudeau on Nov. 21, 2016 was based on an assessment of more than 9,000 pieces of scientific literature. This paper was authored by eight academics, peer-reviewed and published in a scientific journal, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

“There are large unexamined risks to the marine environment from oil sands products,” the scientists wrote in their letter to Trudeau. The letter also told Trudeau that it would be “scientifically unfounded” to assume that damage from these products can be lessened.

Yet, some government officials quickly labelled the paper “wrong” and “not true,” picking apart its conclusions about industry secrecy, the availability of scientific data and the impact of the oilsands on climate change.

The internal correspondence also shows that an official inside Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr's office asked the department whether the study was accurate.

One week later, Trudeau and several cabinet ministers announced they had approved the Trans Mountain and Line 3 projects, but rejected a third pipeline, Enbridge's Northern Gateway project, based on “rigorous debate, on science and on evidence.”

Indigenous rights 'serious obstacle' to Kinder Morgan pipeline, report says

The controversial expansion of a pipeline that would carry tar sands crude from Alberta to British Columbia’s coast will be doomed by the rising power of Indigenous land rights.

That’s the message that Kanahus Manuel, an Indigenous activist from the Secwepemc Nation in central BC, plans to deliver to banks financing the project as she travels through Europe this week.

She’ll have in hand a report being released today by the Indigenous Network on Economies and Trade, which argues that Texas-based Kinder Morgan has misled financial backers about the risks of expanding its TransMountain pipeline, almost half of which runs across “unceded” Secwepemc territory.

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The report details “significant legal, financial and reputation risks” that amount to “serious obstacles” it says have been downplayed by Kinder Morgan in its dealings with Canadian and international banks.

The key risks, identified by economists and lawyers based on the pipeline’s history, Canadian legal precedents, and financial documents, include Kinder Morgan’s plans to build on lands whose ownership is hotly contested.

The pipeline crosses 518km of Secwepemc territory over which the First Nations assert Aboriginal title, a type of land rights that the supreme court of Canada has recognized were never ceded or relinquished through treaties....

Kinder Morgan warns of massive losses and blames Burnaby for pipeline delays

After downplaying concerns about delays to its investors last week, Kinder Morgan is warning it could lose more than $90 million per month due to its struggles with the bylaws of the City of Burnaby in British Columbia.

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When asked about Kinder Morgan's claims on Friday, Corrigan told National Observer in a phone interview that the company was playing "fast and loose with the facts."

“It was quite stunning, because, first of all, I knew I never said anything like that," Corrigan said. "What I said was exactly what I’ve always said. I’m going to use every legal means available to me in order to oppose this, and then, if potentially, if I exhaust all of my legal avenues, if I exhaust all of my political avenues, then I’m going to stand in front of a bulldozer and accept the consequences for doing something that is an act of civil disobedience. But never once, did I say that I would do anything to affect the integrity of the Burnaby system or affect the way that my city operates.”

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Corrigan said that Kinder Morgan's Canadian boss, Ian Anderson, came into his office to discuss the matter earlier this week, prior to the company's filings with the NEB. The mayor said that the executive then pressured him to intervene during a meeting that lasted about 45 minutes.

“He came in to essentially threaten me that he was going to go to the National Energy Board over the permitting process and what was I going to do about it," Corrigan said in an interview.

“I said to Ian Anderson that I do not interfere with the regulatory process in the city and the appropriate processes for granting permits. And I would neither interfere to hinder their application, nor to advance their application. It’s strictly an area in which our staff have to act objectively and independently.”

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Meantime, when asked if Burnaby would consider hiring more staff to speed up processing of Kinder Morgan's permit applications, Corrigan said he felt no obligation to help Kinder Morgan.

"One of the points that I want to make out of this is that Kinder Morgan thinks that it’s way more important than it is," he said. "I have a billion dollars worth of development going on in my city this year. I have got a multitude of high-rise developments, commercial developments, rental developments, they’re happening. And our staff are under significant pressure to be able to accommodate all of the projects that are before us. Kinder Morgan doesn’t walk in and elbow everybody else out of the way. It may be that they think that they’re important enough that they can simply tell people what to do and they may have gotten used to that at the National Energy Board. But in Burnaby, they queue with everybody else to go through the system and ensure that we’re able to deal with them in due course.”

NEB rejects Kinder Morgan proposal to limit debate

Kinder Morgan will have to wait a bit longer than it was hoping to resolve its struggle to get the provincial and municipal permits it needs to proceed with a major west coast pipeline expansion project.

Canada's federal pipeline regulator, the National Energy Board (NEB), rejected the Texas-based energy company's proposal to cut off arguments and limit the debate about a request to quash provincial and municipal powers to protect their environment and territory.

Kinder Morgan has asked the NEB to intervene with the other levels of government to prevent them from delaying construction on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project by denying required permits. It also asked the NEB to give interested stakeholders until Monday, Nov. 6 to submit their arguments about its request, a deadline that was rejected on Friday evening by the regulator....

Squamish Nation challenging B.C.'s approval of Kinder Morgan project in court

The Squamish Nation says it was not given adequate information about the safety risks associated with Kinder Morgan's proposed Trans Mountain expansion project. It's taking that argument to the B.C. Supreme Court this week in hopes of stopping the expansion.

The court is holding a provincial judicial review of the B.C. government's decision to approve the project.

"The NEB [National Energy Board] is approving a project without proper analysis," said Squamish Nation hereditary chief Ian Campbell. 

"The province and the feds have gone along with that recommendation without proper analysis of how diluted bitumen will affect the Salish Sea.".....

This Living Salish Sea - Trailer 2017