The City of Burnaby will be applying for intervenor status in the National Energy Board hearing over the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion.
Vancouver has already announced its intent to apply, and on Friday, Mayor Derek Corrigan confirmed with the NOW that Burnaby would do that same.
“We will apply for intervenor status in the new year. We have already put them on notice that we are opposed to the application, but we will formalize our status now that the application has been made,” Corrigan wrote in an email.
Kinder Morgan filed the application with the National Energy Board on Monday. The board’s main task is to review the application and decide if the project is in Canada’s best interest. People can apply as intervenors (or file a letter of comment to the panel) in mid-January.
The board will decide who is allowed to participate. Intervenors have to be directly affected or have relevant information or expertise to share, and they can file written evidence and ask the applicant questions.
The board has to make sure the company’s application is complete, which should take three or four months, and then the hearing location and date can be announced.
The city of Burnaby has already come out against the expansion plan, which involves twinning the Trans Mountain pipeline. Kinder Morgan wants to increase capacity from 300,000 barrels of oil per day to 890,000, nearly triple current capacity. The tank storage facility on Burnaby Mountain will also be doubled and the Westridge Marine Terminal will be expanded.
In the past, Corrigan has said that Alberta will receive most of the benefits of the expansion, while Burnaby will bear the brunt of the risks.
If the National Energy Board approves the expansion, tanker traffic in the Burrard Inlet will rise dramatically, from five to 34 tankers per month.
Anyone interested in applying as an intervenor, can sign up for email alerts by going to the NEB website at www.neb-one.gc.ca. Select Trans Mountain under Major Applications and Projects, and click on the email link under the heading: How can I get updates about the hearing? (or click here)
Burnaby-Douglas MP Kennedy Stewart has also created a website (letbcdecide.ca), where people can register to learn more about getting involved in the hearing process.
