Kinder Morgan head says he’d like to thaw relations with Burnaby over pipeline

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VANCOUVER – The president of Kinder Morgan Canada says he wants to thaw relations between his firm and the City of Burnaby over the proposed routes for the Trans Mountain pipeline.

Ian Anderson admits the relationship is “toxic” but says he hopes the company won’t have to go the National Energy Board to force the city to give access to investigate a tunnel route through Burnaby Mountain.

The National Energy Board announced earlier this week that there would be a seven-month delay in the review of the proposed pipeline expansion because of the City of Burnaby’s refusal to co-operate with the company.

The NEB wants more information about the route through Burnaby Mountain, but the city is cemented in its opposition and hasn’t allowed engineers and other specialists hired by Trans Mountain onto city property.

If Burnaby refuses to co-operate, Trans Mountain could apply to the NEB for an order granting access to the property on Burnaby Mountain, which is home to Simon Fraser University

Anderson says the communication between the city and Kinder Morgan has been “non-existent.”

“We are going to the city formally, really out of respect for the fact that it is city land. And, so we will approach them, but we will see how those decisions get made.”

Anderson says tunnelling through the mountain will help avoid construction through Burnaby neighbourhoods.

The NEB delayed the deadline for the final report to cabinet by almost seven months to Jan. 25, 2016.

Oral hearings that were expected to start next January will now start in July 2015.

The $5.4-billion pipeline expansion would almost triple the current pipeline’s capacity, moving about 900,000 barrels a day between Alberta’s oil sands and the B.C. coast.

(CKNW)

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