Energy East would move millions of barrels of bitumen just kilometres from Edmundston’s watershed.
Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow spoke against the Energy East pipeline in Edmundston, New Brunswick last night alongside Angela Giles, our Halifax-based Atlantic regional organizer, Ben Gotschall, a Nebraska-based farmer and opponent of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline, and Matthew Abbott, the St. Andrews-based Fundy Baykeeper with the Conservation Council of New Brunswick.
Edmundston is a small city of about 16,000 people situated in the northeastern section of the Appalachian Mountains where the Saint John and Madawaska rivers meet in the northwestern part of the province. The proposed pipeline route is about 20 kilometres north of the city and just 16 kilometres from their watershed area. The original route proposed by TransCanada was even closer to the watershed and near residential neighbourhoods. Mayor Cyrille Simard demanded the route change and said he would not support the pipeline unless TransCanada could assure him the local water supply would be protected.
About 50 people were at our public event last night, including local area landowners who are concerned about the impacts the pipeline could have on their land. Gotschall, a rancher who has been fighting TransCanada in Nebraska, was well positioned to answer their questions.
A number of supporters of the pipeline were present inside our venue with placards. As with our event in Fredericton, the small protest included pipeline fitters who would take the short-term jobs associated with building the pipeline. In response, we’ve highlighted that the Energy East pipeline would result in a 40 per cent increase in tar sands production. With that kind of growth, it is very clear that the pipeline would mean more people from Edmundston would be leaving home for jobs in the tar sands rather than the creation of good local jobs for them. The Alberta Federation of Labour has characterized the pipeline as an “export” project and commented, “Energy East will only solidify our role as ‘hewers of wood, drawers of water…and diggers of bitumen.'”
Prior to the public forum last night, Barlow was interviewed by Terry Seguin, the host of Information Morning Fredericton. To listen to that 11-minute interview, please click here. She also met with the mayor of Edmundston who had raised concerns about the city’s water supply. Barlow tweeted, “Just had meeting with terrific Mayor Simard on Energy East.”
Edmundston wraps our Atlantic tour against the Energy East pipeline which included stops in Halifax (which drew about 120 people on October 26), Cornwallis (with 140 people on October 27), Saint John (with 200 people on October 29) and Fredericton (with 300 people on November 4). For more on the first half of the tour, please see this blog by Council of Canadians energy and climate justice campaigner Andrea Harden-Donahue On the frontlines in Atlantic Canada – what is at risk with the Energy East pipeline. And for more on the latter part of the tour, you can read Giles’ blog Reflections from the Atlantic Energy East tour.
During our tour TransCanada submitted its final application to the National Energy Board for this pipeline that would pump 1.1 million barrels a day of bitumen 4,600 kilometres across the country from Alberta to New Brunswick. Once the NEB deems the application complete, it has 15 months to make a recommendation to the federal cabinet, which would likely take us to about February 2016. The cabinet would then have three months to decide, which would place that timing around May 2016. If approved – which we won’t let happen! – the pipeline would be constructed and begin operation by late 2018.
With this tour now concluded, we have the opportunity to assess the most strategic next steps for us to take next in this campaign. It will certainly include continuing to pursue a motion seeking leave to appeal with the Federal Court of Canada the National Energy Board’s exclusion of climate change from its ‘list of issues’ to be considered when reviewing TransCanada’s application. We’re doing so because the regulator will not accept testimony on climate change even though the pipeline would generate 32 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year from the crude oil production required to fill it.
For more blogs, fact sheets, reports, a video, a petition and ways to take action, please see our Energy East campaign web-page here.
