Dear Editor:
We all know that big money political donations can influence elections. B.C. does not have limitations on donors of big money and this money can play an influential role in an election.
This realization is relevant to the many concerns people have about Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline project. Burnaby residents could have an unfair share of risks and costs imposed on them as a result of big money and the government’s approval of this project.
Democracy Watch, a national, non-profit non-partisan group, became concerned about the effect of unrestricted political donations. They looked into the B.C. election donations and found Kinder Morgan and oil companies who plan to ship bitumen through the proposed Trans Mountain pipeline donated more than $550,000 to the B.C. Liberals in the past five years. They also took note of the $50,000 paid to Premier Christy Clark by the Liberal Party of B.C. (since cancelled) amounting to $300,000 over the same period.
Linking these two situations, Democracy Watch came to the conclusion there could be a case of conflict of interest and bias on the part of Premier Christy Clark in her decision to approve Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
With this information, on Jan. 30, 2017, Democracy Watch and PIPEUP Network filed in the Supreme Court of B.C. They have called for a judicial review of the decision dated Jan. 11, 2017 to approve the Kinder Morgan pipeline made jointly by the Premier of British Columbia, the minister of environment and the minister of natural gas development .
They filed with the court because they believe the Kinder Morgan pipeline approval should be set aside or quashed on the basis that it is tainted by a reasonable apprehension of bias.
This case clearly falls in line with both the decisions of the B.C. Conflict of Interest Commission (2003) and the Federal Court of Appeal (2009) when they ruled that political donations by companies and other lobbyists create a conflict of interest and that could mean the politicians can’t make decisions that affect these companies. However, the final decision rests with the Supreme Court of B.C.
Elsie Dean, Burnaby
