NDP leader Adrian Dix has come out opposing Kinder Morgan's pipeline expansion proposal. In a statement released Monday, for Earth Day, Dix said he would not let Vancouver become a major oil exporting port.
"We have to wait to see a formal application, but I don't think that the Port of Metro Vancouver, as busy and as successful as it is, should become a major oil export facility," Dix said. "We will conduct a made-in-B.C. review of the Kinder Morgan proposal and decisions will be made here in B.C."
Kinder Morgan is working on a $5.4-billion plan to expand its existing pipeline, increasing capacity from 300,000 barrels of oil per day to 890,000, which would bring traffic in the Burrard Inlet up from five tankers per month to 34 - that's more than 400 per year. The vessels fill up with oil at Kinder Morgan's Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby.
"Kinder Morgan has an existing pipeline, which has been used largely to serve the West Coast market, including the Chevron refinery in Metro Vancouver and other refineries such as Cherry Point in Washington State," Dix stated. "Only about 80,000 barrels per day of the current pipeline is exported via tanker from Vancouver. The Kinder Morgan proposal, as we understand it, would dramatically transform what that pipeline does and would dramatically transform the Port of Vancouver. The Kinder Morgan pipeline would become a pipeline designed for oil sands bitumen export, with increasing dramatically the barrels per day passing through the Port of Vancouver via tankers."
If elected, Dix indicated an NDP government would separate the provincial and federal environmental approval processes. The current practice is to default to the federal environmental review to avoid duplication of work.
Jane Shin, NDP candidate for Burnaby-Lougheed said she was happy about Dix's announcement.
"We do need a rigorous made-in-B.C. environmental assessment," she said. "We will not be allowing Stephen Harper to make a decision on Kinder Morgan," she added. "We will be taking back control of the pipeline decisions. ... We want to make sure proposals will be subject to a made-in-B.C. environmental approval process."
Kinder Morgan's tank farm, a portion of the Trans Mountain pipeline and the Westridge Marine Terminal are all in the Burnaby-Lougheed riding. Shin said the issue comes up while door-knocking, especially by Simon Fraser University and in the Forest Grove neighbourhood.
In an emailed statement to the NOW, Greg Toth, senior project director for the pipeline expansion project, pointed out that the company is still developing the application.
"As part of that process, we have been engaging with British Columbians, including governments and elected officials and have heard many questions and some concerns," he said in an emailed statement. "_We are confident we can address these questions and concerns through our application and are willing to work with all levels of government and elected officials. We plan to develop a project that meets all established requirements and one that protects the interests of Canada and British Columbia."
Ken Kramer, Liberal candidate for Burnaby-Lougheed, said the Liberal position has been quite clear from the beginning.
"We're obviously committed to economic development, but with a balance of environmental protection. We can definitely develop natural resources in a sustainable way, but we need to also balance that and ensure our environment is protected," he said.
"Obviously, Mr. Dix has contradicted his own comments around Kinder Morgan, which has come to a complete surprise to all of us," he said. "My understanding is that for almost two years he wasn't taking any position around the pipeline and he was waiting for there to be an application. Today was an about-face."
