The president of Kinder Morgan Canada Ian Anderson claims that "Burnaby mayor Derek Corrigan and his council have taken the position that they won't speak with us, they won't cooperate in any way with what we are considering. ... I'd much rather see a healthier relationship between us."
Clearly, Anderson has not done his homework on Corrigan - a.k.a. - the city's "Mother Bear." Corrigan has made it clear that the city does not welcome Kinder Morgan's expansion proposal. In fact, he's dead set against it.
Good for him. In a world where politicians mealy-mouth almost everything Corrigan has drawn a clear line in the sand. No jobs created by the pipeline construction or created in an expansion of the oil terminal will make up for the long-term impact of the proposed expansion of the terminal. We suspect he speaks for the majority of Burnaby citizens.
Anderson's comment was triggered by what he says is the city's refusal to let its engineers access city land to do geotechnical work to determine if it can tunnel a pipeline through Burnaby Mountain. Some might say Corrigan is being petty. Refusing to let the company engineers do their work will probably just end up in some kind of court battle or NEB ruling forcing the city to let the work happen. But during the battle more people will learn about the massive plans, learn how our reliance on oil and gas is turning our planet into a warm, toxic dome - and, hopefully, learn that they can do something about it.
It's an uphill battle. Canada is now - contrary to its carbon emissions promises - going to completely miss its 2020 reductions goal, while the U.S. is on track to meet those same goals. As a nation we should be very worried - and ashamed.
When Ian Anderson says he would like a "healthier relationship" between his company and the city, he might want to consider having a healthier relationship with the planet.
