The Council of Canadians Vancouver-Burnaby participates in a march against the Kinder Morgan pipeline, May 2016.
Will Texas-based Kinder Morgan begin work on its 890,000 barrel per day Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline within the next two weeks?
On June 8, the Vancouver Sun reported on Kinder Morgan’s construction timeline:
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first week of September – land clearing along the route (notably in Langley, Surrey, Coquitlam and Burnaby) to start -
late September – pipe shipments to begin -
mid-October – pipeline construction near Edmonton to start -
January 2018 – pipeline construction to start -
late March 2018 – boring a tunnel through Burnaby Mountain to start -
summer of 2018 – stringing and welding of pipe in the Chilliwack area to start -
October 2018 – pipeline construction to start in the Kamloops area
That was before the NDP government took office in British Columbia (on July 18), before that government said that Kinder Morgan could not begin work on public land until it meaningfully consulted with Indigenous nations (on August 10), and before it formally applied for intervenor status in the court challenges against the pipeline (yesterday).
But questions persist about what the transnational will do (given the Trudeau government approved the pipeline in November 2016).
Yesterday, the Canadian Press reported, “Trans Mountain, a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan Canada, has said construction is set to begin in September, but the government says only three of eight environment management plans have been accepted, preventing work from starting.”
And Coast Protectors, a campaign led by Grand Chief Stewart Phillip and the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, notes, “Kinder Morgan plans to start pipeline and tanker berth construction in September — and we need to be ready. After the BC government announcement that Kinder Morgan wouldn’t be starting construction on public land any time soon, Kinder Morgan announced a hiring partnership with a construction company for September construction on private land.”
Coast Protectors will be holding a one-hour webcast today starting at 12 pm PT (3 pm ET) to discuss this issue.
#StopKM
