The longtime president of a local marina is coming out in favour of the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion, the number 1 issue for Burnaby residents in the upcoming civic election.
For more than two decades David Harris has been president of Reed Point Marina, on the boundary between Burnaby and Port Moody, and he says there's support in the business community for the pipeline expansion.
"Most business people I talk to are not in agreement with (Burnaby mayor Derek) Corrigan or (Gregor) Robertson, the mayor of Vancouver, because they are not business people. They don't recognize that they need businesses to produce tax revenue," he told the NOW. "Who's going to pay for our hospitals or our schools? Not more government employees."
Harris argued there's no better tax revenue than that which comes from resource industries.
"They get huge tax dollars from these people, and they use no services. I am not keen (on) oil in the harbour anymore than anyone else is, but this port is a federal jurisdiction that's meant to ship out the country's goods, including petroleum products," he said.
Harris also claimed Corrigan's opposition to the Kinder Morgan expansion could encourage more oil transportation by rail.
"They don't need anybody's approval to ship more oil by rail. The approvals are already in place, and that's what he's encouraging," Harris said. "I'd like to see them go ahead with the Kinder Morgan pipeline. It's by far the safest thing to do."
Harris seemed somewhat dismissive of climate change, stating he disagreed the science is settled, although NASA states 97 per cent of climate change scientist agree global warming is happening and humans are to blame.
"There's too much alarmist stuff," Harris said. "We'll adapt, and a few more tankers will make it out of the harbour. It will get there anyway, and this is the safest place to ship it out."
Kinder Morgan wants to expand the Trans Mountain pipeline, increasing volumes nearly three-fold, from 300,000 barrels of oil per day to 890,000. The move would increase tanker traffic on the Burrard Inlet from roughly five tankers a month to 34.
According to Kinder Morgan, the current pipeline contributes $7 million annually in tax revenue for Burnaby, while the expansion is expected to bring in $13 million. Last November, Kinder Morgan Canada president Ian Anderson told the Burnaby Board of Trade the company would prioritize hiring locally whenever possible and that there would be opportunities for Burnaby contractors, but the data he presented showed most of the jobs would not be local hires. The Burnaby workforce would peak at about 600 jobs, but there would only be an estimated 50 permanent post-construction jobs in all of B.C., according to Anderson.
Burnaby Board of Trade president Paul Holden said his organization has not yet taken a stance on the pipeline, although the board does have commenter status for the National Energy Board hearing. The board put together a task force on the issue and met with roughly 10 stakeholder groups to come up with a statement for the hearing. Holden said that has yet to be reviewed and approved by the board, but it should be ready "fairly soon."
The City of Burnaby recently conducted its own poll, through Insights West and found opposition to the expansion was growing, from 61 per cent in June to 68 per cent in September. The NOW also ccontacted Corrigan for comment but did not hear back immediately.
Harris was also granted commenter status for the National Energy Board hearing. Click here to read his letter.
