The debate over the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project appears to have pitted Burnaby against one B.C. Interior town’s mayor.
On Monday, longtime Burnaby city councillor Sav Dhaliwal wrote an open letter inviting Fort St. John Mayor Lori Ackerman to take a tour of Burnaby, specifically around the Kinder Morgan tank farm on Burnaby Mountain.
The invite was in response to the Fort St. John’s mayor’s full-page ad in the Vancouver Sun last week after federal approval of the pipeline project, in which she noted support for the project and argued pipelines are safe and cost-effective way to transport oil and natural gas.
Dhaliwal said he invited Ackerman to visit the city because many people are not aware the risks Burnaby is facing with the tank farm.
“We’re saying it loudly: ‘Look, the City of Burnaby has a unique problem with this line, with this expansion and we need to have people give us assurance there are ways to manage that,’” he told the NOW.
Dhaliwal argued there have been no plans put forward by Kinder Morgan or from the federal or provincial government in the event of a major incident at the tank farm.
He said he would have expected a letter from the Mayor of Fort St. John addressed to people of B.C. to include that a lot of work still needs to be done to make the project safe.
“That’s what I took exception to, to say ‘no, someone should come take a look. It’s not all about the pipeline; it’s more than that,’” he said.
The debate over the pipeline in B.C also appears to have sparked an urban/rural divide. The City of Burnaby along with other municipalities around Metro Vancouver have opposed the pipeline expansion project, while B.C. Interior communities like Barriere, Merritt and Valemount have signed community benefit agreements with Trans Mountain.
Dhaliwal agrees, suggesting the message from politicians outside Metro Vancouver is focused on the economic side of the project and not the risks.
“When the immediate danger isn’t next to you… people think it’s out of sight, out of mind,” he said. “Once you see it, everyday it’s going to be in your face for the next 50 years, would you still support it?”
It’s not clear if Dhaliwal will get a chance to ask Ackerman the question.
The NOW reached out to the mayor of Fort St. John to see if she would be taking the Burnaby council up on his invite, but she was unable to comment prior to press deadline.
In Ackerman’s ad, she also said she was concerned about safety but argued Canada has some of the strictest safety standards in the world.
