The battle over Burnaby Mountain is heating up, as the city attempts to stop a major pipeline company from working in a conservation area.
The City of Burnaby ticketed two Kinder Morgan workers today for cutting down 13 trees on Burnaby Mountain, after the company ignored a stop-work order issued Tuesday.
Dipak Dattani, the city's acting director of engineering, said parks staff issued two tickets on Wednesday for cutting trees in the park.
"We found a number of healthy trees that were cut, and we've got the pictures," he told the NOW.
According to Dattani, Kinder Morgan crews left the area around noon. Tension over access to the land is rising, as Kinder Morgan continues survey work for a new pipeline route for the Trans Mountain expansion, something the city adamantly opposes. Kinder Morgan's position is that the National Energy Board Act ensures the company's right to carry out survey work without the city's permission, and the board seems to agree. Meanwhile, the city is still sticking to its argument that the federal law should not be used to overwrite municipal bylaws and will seek a court ruling to stop the company and protect the park. Much of Burnaby Mountain is city-owned land and a protected conservation area. Local bylaws forbid people from cutting or harming trees and other vegetation.
Burnaby MP Kennedy Stewart, who also opposes the pipeline, was on site Wednesday and did not like what he saw. Stewart's office issued a press release condemning the tree-cutting, which he says was done to make way for a helicopter staging area.
"I never cease to be amazed at what this company does in pursuit of its pipeline project," Stewart said. "This time they went too far. They have broken the law and cut down trees - ruining a natural habitat that was established by residents as an official conservation area in the 1970s."
Local residents also gathered at the site.
