The cities of Burnaby and Vancouver are saying nearly half of their questions for Kinder Morgan have gone unanswered.
The responses, which Kinder Morgan filed on Feb. 18, are part of the ongoing National Energy Board hearing to review the company's plan to expand the Trans Mountain pipeline, which runs through Burnaby.
"In May of last year, we submitted 1,679 questions, 62 per cent of which Kinder Morgan chose not to answer and for which they gave only partial answers to 14 per cent," said Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan in a joint press release with Vancouver. "Because the city has very significant questions that focus on the hundreds of ways in which Kinder Morgan's proposed pipeline and tank farm would threaten our city and region's safety, security and livability, we again asked Kinder Morgan to provide answers. Unfortunately - but not surprisingly - Kinder Morgan has again failed to show respect for our citizens' questions by refusing to answer almost half of them."
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson also bemoaned the city's unanswered questions.
"The continued lack of information from Kinder Morgan and their inability to adequately answer questions about their emergency management plans is a huge concern for residents and businesses in Vancouver and across the region," Robertson said. "The city continues to find very significant gaps in the information that Kinder Morgan has provided for a project that puts our environment and economy at risk."
The cities asked questions on a variety of topics, mostly the environmental, health and safety risks of the project. The information request procedure is the NEB's way of letting intervenors in the pipeline hearing ask the company questions, now that oral cross-examinations are no longer done.
Following the first round of information requests last spring, Burnaby, Vancouver and the provincial government all lamented the lack of answered from Kinder Morgan.
Kinder Morgan Canada president Ian Anderson told the NOW recently that some of the questions in the second round were not relevant or outside the scope of issues, as defined by the NEB.
"Having said that, we're doing I think a more fulsome job of responding to as much as we possibly can within that scope, and I think intervenors will find that as they see the answers," Anderson said. "The NEB process is not the only way they are going to get answers from us. We're dealing directly with communities on their local issues, their local concerns that may not be relevant to the NEB filing, but may still be relevant to our relationship with the community."
Trans Mountain spokesperson Ali Hounsell also pointed out that intervenors are free to file motions with the NEB if they want more answers.
"Ultimately, last time, we went back and provided information for a whole lot," she said.
