Dear Editor:
Re: Residents concerned about safety, value, Burnaby NOW, Feb. 7.
Since announcing our intention to expand the Trans Mountain Pipeline in 2012, we have been committed to openly and honestly communicating about the project.
We understand that people want to know exactly where the proposed pipeline will go, and they will. But it is a process that takes time and one that must take into consideration the interests of people, safety and the environment.
In our application to the National Energy Board (NEB), filed Dec. 16, we identified a selected study corridor for Burnaby and described an alternative - both options were presented and discussed with the community in the summer of 2013. Even though we've filed a study corridor, our conversations and studies have continued. Through that ongoing work, we are now more fully exploring the alternative route in Burnaby. If, through our work, different landowners are impacted, the NEB would then consider how to address the needs of those landowners who might be affected by this change.
Some information about the selected and alternative study corridors in Burnaby:
We have been in contact with every landowner potentially affected by either study corridor. If you have not been contacted by us, you are not in either corridor. If that changes, you will hear directly from us.
There are a total of four homes in the selected corridor - they are between our Burnaby and Westridge terminals in Burnaby. Even though they are in the corridor, no land will be expropriated and nobody will lose their home as a result of our project. We are also continuing to explore options for alternative routing that avoids individual landowers.
Our goal is to be clear with Burnaby residents - through our conversations, open houses and workshops, media interviews and website materials - about the process and timeline for selecting a route. That said, if there's still confusion in the community, we will do more to communicate. We have added a new map to our website to clearly show what we've said in the application about our selected and alternative routes in Burnaby - www.transmountain.com/burnaby-community-map.
An understanding of the process is important and will lead to informed conversations, but for us, nothing is more important than relationships. For six decades, Burnaby has been home to our Burnaby storage terminal, our mainline and jet fuel pipelines and our Westridge Marine Terminal. We have established and respectful relationships with local landowners, neighbours and community groups, and many of our employees work and live in Burnaby. Nothing is more important to us than these relationships and community connections, as we too are part of your community.
We encourage you to join the process so we can ensure no voice goes unheard and no question goes unanswered as part of our commitment to selecting a route in a transparent and timely manner.
Ian Anderson, president, Kinder Morgan Canada
