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Council of Canadians at OEB hearing on Energy East pipeline this evening

The Ontario Minister of Energy has asked the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) to hold public consultations on the proposed Energy East tar sands pipeline. Once these are concluded, the OEB will report to the provincial government on its findings and that will serve to inform their position at the upcoming National Energy Board (NEB) hearings on the pipeline.

We believe it’s essential that people in Ontario speak against Energy East through these forums and pressure Premier Kathleen Wynne to reject this pipeline. Tonight, the OEB will be consulting the public in Ottawa (Kanata) – and the Council of Canadians will be there.

So far, hearings have been held in Kenora (January 13), Thunder Bay (January 14), Kapuskasing (January 19), Timmins (January 20) and North Bay (January 21). At these meetings, the OEB has been sharing its technical assessments of TransCanada’s application to the NEB for this pipeline.

Council of Canadians energy and climate justice campaigner Andrea Harden-Donahue has highlighted key points from these assessments commissioned by the OEB.

Those reports have found that:


  • TransCanada has inflated the promise of jobs;

  • the local taxation to be generated from the pipeline is likely to be small;

  • approximately 99 kilometres of the pipeline set for conversion is wrapped in polyethlene tape and susceptible to stress corrosion cracking;

  • if leak detection and shut down happens perfectly, 22 minutes could elapse before pumping stops;

  • TransCanada’s application is incomplete, only allowing a high level assessment until TransCanada submits more information;

  • the company’s application with respect to 95 per cent of drinking water sources along the route is incomplete;

  • there is a lack of detail on the impacts or mitigation plans for the converted pipeline crossing eight provincial parks, four conservation reserves and four conservation areas;

  • TransCanada’s application lacks a detailed emergency response plan for spills on agricultural land.

Unfortunately, none of the OEB reports mention that diluted bitumen will be transported in the pipeline. This is significant because bitumen can sink in water (making recovery after a spill very difficult) and is much more corrosive than regular oil. And the climate report asserts that the oil that would be shipped by this pipeline could otherwise economically be shipped by rail. This implies a false carbon neutrality by suggesting tar sands production would expand with or without this pipeline. We reject this assertion and note that petroleum producers are seeking both an expansion of rail and pipeline capacity to move this bitumen.

News articles about the hearings so far indicate that watershed protection and climate change have been the key issues raised by those in attendance.

The CBC reports that in Kenora both supporters and opponents of the pipeline raised concerns about the risk it poses to waterways, notably Nipigon River and Winnipeg River. Net News Ledger reports that in Thunder Bay “the meeting addressed a multiplicity of issues, but it is fair to say that most of the issues concerned the protection of the environment in Northern Ontario. Many passionate statements were made about the absolute necessity of protecting our water and wetlands.” And the Nugget reports that in North Bay, “Concerns about a lack of information in the Energy East pipeline proposal and disappointment in the provincial government’s efforts to address its impact were key issues raised during a community consultation.”

The Council of Canadians encourages you to participate in this process. The next hearing after Ottawa-Kanata tonight takes place in Cornwall on January 27. The OEB is also giving the public until February 6 to comment on the review. To send your written comments to them, please click here.

Our backgrounder on these hearings can be read here.