Vancouver launches judicial review of Kinder Morgan’s pipeline expansion

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The City of Vancouver has filed an application for a judicial review of the National Energy Board’s decision to conditionally recommend Kinder Morgan’s pipeline expansion project with the Federal Court of Appeal.

It calls the move both invalid and unlawful and says the NEB ignored key evidence in review hearings.

Mayor Gregor Robertson says an expanded pipeline is not in Vancouver or Canada’s economic or environmental interest.

“The National Energy Board failed to properly and thoroughly consult local communities on the pipeline and tanker route, ignoring key pieces of scientific evidence showing the potential for real and catastrophic damage to local waters in the event of an oil spill, and the impact of an expanded pipeline on greenhouse gas emissions both locally and abroad. Vancouver still has significant concerns about Kinder Morgan’s expansion and we’ve concluded it’s simply not worth the risk to our environment or economy.”

The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion would triple capacity on the line between an oil sands facility near Edmonton and an export terminal on Burrard Inlet in Burnaby.

The City says the board failed to properly consult communities along the pipeline and tanker route.

Councillor Andrea Reimer says the process for adding a deck on your Vancouver home is more vigorous.

“If you want a liquor licence in the City of Vancouver, if you want to put a deck on the back of your house, the process you would have to go through and the public’s right of access to that process as well as the scope of information that you could bring to bear for council to hear is much more significant than the National Energy Board allowed for a massive expansion of oil shipments through Vancouver and through the Lower Mainland. It just doesn’t pass any smell test that you would expect any process of government to have, let alone one of this magnitude.”