Last week, according to Digital Journal, Green Party Vancouver city councilor Adriane Carr entered a motion requesting a judicial review of the Province of British Columbia’s decision to give environmental approval to Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project in BC.
That motion was approved on Wednesday when city councilors voted 8-2 to request the judicial review after several community speakers highlighted the provinces lack of consultation with indigenous tribes and the public, in general. Speakers also contended that no comprehensive studies modeling the detrimental effects of a bitumen spill along the BC coastline have been done, either.
Carr echoed what she had said at a press conference outside City Hall last week, telling CBC News: “At the very minimum, [the judicial review] will slow down the whole process in terms of moving forward with the Kinder Morgan project. In the best case scenario, it would lead to the province changing its position, and having to say ‘no’ to Kinder Morgan — and that would be a real win.”
Right now, it’s in the hands of city lawyers to convince the Supreme Court of BC to move forward with the review. “If a judge decides that a more rigorous environmental assessment is needed, the province could be ordered to conduct more research on the effects of a potential bitumen spill,” says Carr.
Province deferred to federal government on environmental review
Last month the province approved the Kinder Morgan pipeline project, with Premier Christy Clark announcing that “all five conditions” for support of the project had been met, including a “world-class” strategy for spill response.
However, Carr says the province did not show “due diligence” but deferred to the federal government’s environmental assessment that included 49 conditions imposed by the National Energy Board, instead of developing its own environmental assessment. But this is not the first time BC has deferred to the federal government rather than do its own environmental review.
In January 2016, the Supreme Court ruled that BC had to conduct its own environmental assessment on the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline and the court also ruled the province had t failed to properly consult with First Nations. The pipeline was eventually rejected by the federal government.
The provincial government disagrees with Carr’s claims, with the Ministry of Environment releasing a statement to CBC News: “We conducted consultation with First Nations as ordered by the B.C. Supreme Court, and added an additional 37 legally-binding conditions that are in addition to, and designed to supplement, the 157 conditions required by the National Energy Board.”
The BC government expects to get over $1.0 billion in investments from Kinder Morgan over the next 20 years and $1.5 billion from the federal government for its “world-class” marine spill response.
In related news, the citizens of BC have started a “challenge” on social media for everyone opposed to the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion and it’s going to take some very brave souls to complete. Called #kmchallenge, BCers are daring each other to jump into icy cold streams to protest the Kinder Morgan pipeline.
