Election Day is less than three weeks away, and the race is on for Burnaby’s mayoral hopefuls, who are voicing their opinions on some of the city’s biggest concerns.
The NOW asked Burnaby’s mayoral candidates where they stand on the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion – the top issue in our reader survey – and what conditions would need to be met to make it appropriate for the city.
Mayor Derek Corrigan’s anti-pipeline stance has been well publicized, and it was abundantly clear by his email response that his stance has not changed.
“We are not prepared to accept the Kinder Morgan expansion with or without conditions,” wrote Corrigan. “But if the National Energy Board allows the expansion over our objections, we will ensure Burnaby's interests and the interests of its citizens.
“There is no requirement for us to reach conditional agreements with Kinder Morgan.”
Burnaby First leader Daren Hancott, on the other hand, took a more middle-of-the-road approach in an effort to represent the diverse views of his coalition.
“We have people in our group that support it and we have people in our group that don’t support it,” he said. “The issue is, is it good enough for Burnaby and is there enough jobs for the risk that we’re taking, and the answer is I don’t know.”
He also noted that out of several thousand residents who he’s spoken to through door-knocking, the pipeline has only been brought up six times.
“If that was a big issue, an election issue, I’d be hearing it a lot more,” he said. “There’s some smoldering things going on there, but it’s not the fire Mr. Corrigan wants to make it out to be.”
Other mayoral candidates, however, sided with Corrigan: former school trustee Helen Chang and ex-mayoral candidate Sylvia Gung both stated they are opposed to the pipeline.
“They have to make sure their pipeline expansion project installs all safety measures that could control/stop any unexpected disaster quickly and let the public know their response protocol in advance,” wrote Chang regarding her conditions for the expansion.
Gung said there are other priorities that need to be addressed before going after the pipeline.
“We have to do the first thing first, which involves settling the prices of goods and services so that the poor can recover some hope, clearing corruption, and balancing our broken education,” she wrote. “Without these done first, or at the least start working on it first, all the new development brings further destruction because there is no back up power whatsoever.”
Candidates Raj Gupta and Allen Hutton did not respond by press time.
