Louise May. Photo credit.
The Council of Canadians Winnipeg chapter is part of a four-person team fighting the proposed 1.1 million barrel per day Energy East pipeline.
Louise May, a St. Norbert farmer and Winnipeg chapter activist, has posted on Facebook, “Thanks to The Council of Canadians — Winnipeg Chapter, a lawyer and a scientist, I’m part of a team that has come together to fight this pipeline coming through our neighbourhood and across our country. Of course, Canada will never meet its global commitments to curtail global warming unless the oil of the tar sands remains in the ground.”
May will be speaking at the St. Norbert Arts Centre (SNAC) Gallery on Thursday (October 20) starting at 6:30 pm.
The outreach for the public meeting says, “Do you have ideas, questions, experiences or comments on the Energy East pipeline here in St Norbert? On the National Energy Board (NEB) hearings? The St. Norbert Arts Centre is an Intervenor in the NEB Energy pipeline hearings. As part of the SNAC community, your contribution to the Intervenor team’s participation is important and welcome. The SNAC Intervenor team wants to make sure we represent you, your interests, and your concerns as we go through this hearing. You are invited to join the SNAC Intervenor team at a community information session on the Energy East pipeline and the NEB hearing process.”
May has highlighted the risk the pipeline poses to water. She says, “It’s up to our city and province to make sure we have clean drinking water.” May notes, “My farm is a kilometre away from the pipeline point and the pipeline will cross the river near the St. Norbert Arts Centre, so we’re opposed to it.”
A Trans Canada natural gas pipeline – which is situated just 10 feet from away from the pipeline the company wants to convert into the Energy East pipeline – exploded in St. Norbert a number of years ago.
The Winnipeg Sun reports, “According to a Transportation Safety Board of Canada report, that explosion, which occurred on April 15, 1996, was caused when the pipeline ruptured. That was caused by a ductile overload fracture, the result of high external stress on the surface of the pipeline. Those stresses were the result of the movement of the slope [on the bank of the La Salle River] in which the pipe was buried.”
When she visited Winnipeg in April 2015, Council of Canadians energy and climate justice campaigner Andrea Harden-Donahue wrote, “The location on the La Salle River is very close to where La Salle flows into the Red River, which then winds its way through Winnipeg towards the historic site of The Forks where the Red River joins the Assiniboine River. An Energy East spill here near or in the waterways threatens to see crude flow through the river to this National Historic Site.”
She adds, “The rupture in 1996 was identified by local residents, not an electronic detection system, and it took 30 minutes to completely turn off the natural gas supply.”
The Energy East pipeline would threaten the water supply of more than 676,000 people in Manitoba. The affected waterways in the province include the Assiniboine River, Red River and in the Shoal Lake watershed. It also crosses two metres below the sole aqueduct for Winnipeg’s drinking water.
Overall, more than 5 million people in Canada rely on drinking water sources within spill reach of the Energy East pipeline.
For more on our campaign to stop the Energy East pipeline, please click here.
