Before all you Burnaby NDP supporters jump on Liberal leader Justin Trudeau for being wishy washy or vague on his Kinder Morgan pipeline stance, I'd like to remind you Thomas Mulcair has been equally noncommittal. Here are some previously unpublished comments from a March visit to Burnaby, pitching tax breaks for small businesses.
Jennifer Moreau: Mr. Mulcair, just a quick question on the Kinder Morgan pipeline, we have Burnaby mayor and council against it, Kennedy Stewart here is against it, can you please clarify the federal NDP’s position on the pipeline.
Sure, the NDP believes under the current structure, having eviscerated the Navigable Waters Protection Act, the Species At Risk Act, the Fisheries Act, there’s no longer any credible environmental assessment process in Canada. And the best proof of that is some of the groups that were there with regard to Kinder Morgan weren’t even allowed to cross examine them and the witnesses of the company. In the absence of a clear, thorough, credible environmental assessment process, there’s no way you can get to yes on Kinder Morgan or any other major project on that nature.
In fact, it's interesting how close the two parties are on this. The Liberals are also saying the process is broken, which leads to lack of social license, and that the process (ie: environmental assessments and NEB hearings) needs fixing.
I think there's a bit of faulty logic there. If you "fix" the process, that's not going to entirely solve your social license problem. Some people don't want the pipeline period, and no amount of community consultation will fix that. We saw more than 100 people arrested on Burnaby Mountain already, and that was only for survey work.
Expect both parties to shift on this as we get closer to the federal election. We'll keep you posted if they change anything or provide more clarity.
