Kinder Morgan and Burnaby

[hobbyguy]

This is an interesting battle that is heating up. Especially the allegation that Kinder Morgan hired private security guards to block access by Burnaby Parks staff.

http://globalnews.ca/news/1216463/burnaby-mayor-says-hell-stand-in-front-of-a-bulldozer-to-stop-kinder-morgan-expansion/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/trans-mountain-pipeline-burnaby-stops-work-by-kinder-morgan-crews-1.2754146
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/kinder-morgan-pipeline-crews-to-resume-work-on-burnaby-mountain-1.2755457

[Hassel99]

It is not clear to me where this project is, public land or private. I have no issue with them keeping security to restrict access to private land especially when work is going on. If its public land.. well time to call the RCMP.

This comment by Ruth Walmsley is scary

"I think there are a lot of people that are prepared. There are trainings going on all over the place for direct action."

Sounds like we might have some home grown terrorist issues a brewing.

[GordonH]

Here are the maps showing the current pipeline & propose routes for expansion.

http://www.pipe-up.net/maps

[maryjane48]

Sounds like we might have some home grown terrorist issues a brewing.

sounds like you watch to much fox news, protecting bc is hardly like the west fire bombing dresden, or the us bringing down the wtc buildings :)




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Regular contact with oil and gas causes cancer. Children living near oil refineries are much more likely to get cancer of the blood (leukemia) than those who live farther away. People living in areas where oil is drilled are much more likely to develop cancers of the stomach, bladder, and lungs than people living in other places. Workers in oil refineries have a high risk of cancer of the lip, stomach, liver, pancreas, connective tissue, prostate, eye, brain, and blood.

When Texaco began drilling for oil in Ecuador, cancer was not known in the region. Forty years later, it is one of the region's worst health problems. In 2 of the most heavily exploited oil regions of the Amazon, the community health workers did a survey of 80 communities and found high rates of cancer, especially cancer of the stomach, bladder, and mouth.



http://en.hesperian.org/hhg/A_Community ... h_Problems

[hobbyguy]

The Burnaby Mountain Conservation area was transferred from Simon Fraser University to the City of Burnaby in 1995. It was transferred specifically for inclusion in the conservation area.

So the City of Burnaby is the legal titleholder.

But the NEB doesn't care? Kinder Morgan brings in private security guards to exclude the City of Burnaby parks staff?

The same NEB, by the way, that refused to give the refinery in Burnaby any priority for pipeline delivery of crude, and so has jeopardized the existence of that refinery by forcing it to use rail and truck transport for feedstock.

[GordonH]

So refinery is within Burnaby and storage tanks up the hill are within Port Moody.

I can see Mayors of the following area's not happy with trains being used:
● Port Moody
● Coquitlam
● Port Coquitlam
● Pitt Meadows
● Maple Ridge
● Mission

Since the trains past right thru each of these area's before stopping at refinery.

How many job's would be lost if Chevron refinery just shutdown (don't forget to add the spinoff jobs).

Hey they could go flip burgers a the local McDonald's. lol

[Liquidnails]

I can certainly understand the fact that Burnaby does not want this pipeline crossing through a conservation area, but it sounds to me that Kinder Morgan has every right to access the land for the purposes of surveying.

Still, I'd be more comfortable with the whole thing if the surveying was started AFTER the pipeline was approved.

What GordonH said is true... Without a secure long term supply of crude oil, the Chevron Refinery may no longer be viable, forcing the lower mainland and parts of BC to rely on more expensive fuel imports.

I think this particular pipeline is a good idea compared to some others and I hope that both KM and Burnaby can reach some sort of sensible agreement.

[bob vernon]

The survey lines only require cutting down a swath of trees along the proposed pipeline route. No more than a hundred feet wide or so through the forest. It allows the surveying to be done, plus it allows easier access to the area when the pipeline goes ahead. Approval is just a formality. Yes, sometimes cities in BC elect leftist, tree-hugging councils, but the Feds can put them in their place.

As far as cutting off the current refinery..... too bad. Let them put in another pipeline to feed it. The refineries for Alberta bitumen are already being built in China. The export of oil out of Vancouver, and also Kitimat, is a done deal. Get over it. If necessary, the military will be brought in to guard the construction of the pipelines. A nice low stress job for our veterans. If Harper sees a loss coming in the next election, he'll approve all kinds of expenditures prior to the election. Otherwise, he'll spring it all on BC after the election when he has another majority. Don't pin any anti-pipeline hopes on a change of government, it'll get approval one way or another.

[hobbyguy]

Well, lets start with the fundamental mandate of government approval of projects.

That is that the project must be in the "interest of Canada and Canadians".

Part of the reason that the original Trans Mountain pipeline was approved was to supply refineries in BC.

The current NEB and bosses allowed K-M to abrogate that responsibility. Do they not consider the residents of Burnaby "Canadian"?

The NEB has also allowed the conversion of the Trans Mountain pipeline to carry dilbit and synbit. None of the refineries in BC, to the best of my knowledge, can handle those products. All of that product is for export. Does that meet the test of "in the interest of Canada and Canadians"? No, it is the subjugation of Canadian interests and the interest of Canadians to the interests of foreigners, including the foreign owners that were permitted to purchase the Canadian pipeline.

That is really where the concept of "social license" breaks down. You are paying more for gasoline so that foreigners can reap higher profits. Canadian jobs are being sacrificed in order to create jobs for foreigners. There are about 275 refinery workers in Burnaby - so that means a support of over 1,000 jobs in Burnaby (direct, indirect, and induced). Those jobs are being at put at risk, precisely because the NEB abrogated the original premise for the pipeline.

It is NOT all about tree-hugging. There is an element of that, but economics and the lack of benefit to local communities plays a bigger role.

What also comes into this is the heavy handed approach of the current federal government. In this case they are allowing a private corporation to over-ride the rights of a municipal government. They did the same thing in Kitimat by preemptively declaring Kitimat a "federal port", thus removing local control (even Rio Tinto/Alcan didn't know about that until it was done - and they built most of the port).


“The Master said, “If your conduct is determined solely by considerations of profit you will arouse great resentment.”

― Confucius

We are seeing great resentment.

[maryjane48]

VANCOUVER - The mayor of British Columbia's most populous city is making his fight against Kinder Morgan's oil pipeline expansion a key plank of his re-election campaign.

British Columbia municipalities go to the polls on Nov. 15 and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and his Vision Vancouver party released an environmental platform Sunday that makes the Trans Mountain expansion proposal its top priority.

"Mayor Robertson and Vision will continue to say a loud, firm `No' to the federal government and Kinder Morgan, and speak up for Vancouver in the National Energy Board hearings," Robertson and his party colleagues said in a statement.


http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/10/05 ... c-politics


things are heating up

[A_Britishcolumbian]

looks like the rcmp are looking to start a war.

RCMP officers made the first arrest of a demonstrator after the month-long demonstration atop Burnaby Mountain today, hitting a man’s head against a car and then throwing him to the ground after trying to enter the protesters’ camp.

Just after 2 pm today, three RCMP officers in two cars arrived at the top of Burnaby Mountain and spoke to protesters. The atmosphere was peaceful and the officers spoke calmly to several people along the road.

One officer then approached the entrance to the encampment area, largely covered by tarps, and tried to get inside. Mel Clifton, an elder from Tsimshian and Gitxan nations, who was standing at the entrance when the officer arrived, Clifton refused to allow the officer through.

“I’m a sovereign citizen. You’re on unceded territory,” Clifton said. The officer told Clifton he would arrest him for obstruction, and Clifton continued to stand in the way. The officer then grabbed Clifton by the arm and slammed him into a parked vehicle, then put him in a squad car.

He was taken to the Burnaby RCMP detachment and held for several hours, then released after signing a Promise to Appear guaranteeing he would appear before the court on an appointed date.

Staff Sergeant-Major John Buis said Clifton had been arrested for obstruction, but it was not certain yet whether charges would be officially laid.

Corporal Brad Gibson, who was present at the scene, said the three officers on the mountain were carrying out routine duties, including photographing the area, and that the RCMP has been closely monitoring the protest for weeks now. They weren’t responding to any call about the protesters.

http://www.vancouverobserver.com/politi ... y-mountain

[westbankkid]

Can the Province not invoke the "not withstanding clause" in the constitution and block the Feds from allowing it when the people don't want it?

[GordonH]

I'm pretty sure all those that have good paying jobs at the Chevron refinery, would like this to go threw. But hey McDonald's is always hiring.

[Johnny_Yuma]

Semper eadem my Lubicon cousins.

Do they know what they are getting us into? Listen at your own risk.

[hobbyguy]

Gordon, the pipeline will be of absolutely no benefit to the refinery workers. The pipeline is intended to carry dilbit, which BC refineries can NOT process.

The real question with what is going on with Kinder-Morgan and Burnaby is this:

Should "our" federal government grant the right to a foreign owned multinational corporation to override municipal laws??? What is next? Provincial laws?

I personally find that issue, and our federal government's handling of the situation, to be a complete slap in the face. Have we become nothing more than tenants in our own country?