One more nail in the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline coffin as B.C. Mayors vote against the highly contentious project.

Posted on by Laila

B.C’s mayors have been busy at their annual conference, held in Whistler this year, passing a resolution that staunchly opposes both the proposed Enbridge pipeline project, and another that calls on senior governments to formally ban tanker traffic and offshore drilling  in B.C.

From the Surrey Leader today, courtesy of Jeff Nagel :

A controversial pipeline that would carry oil sands crude from Alberta across northern B.C. to tankers on the north coast has taken a hit from the Union of B.C. Municipalities.

Civic leaders at the annual conference in Whistler passed a resolution opposing Enbridge’s Northern Gateway proposal.

They also voted to call on senior governments to formally legislate a ban on offshore oil drilling and to ban oil tanker traffic in the waters surrounding Haida Gwaii.

Opponents of crude oil exports were jubilant, particularly delegates from the Village of Queen Charlotte, which sponsored some of the resolutions.

“It is simply too much to risk, the consequences too high, our knowledge too insufficient and the wrong place to put our hopes and dreams,” Queen Charlotte Mayor Carol Kulesha said, adding she hopes the endorsement adds more fuel to the fight against the Enbridge project.

Critics say oil sands petroleum comes with a higher carbon footprint and the pipeline would bring unacceptable risks of pollution – both inland and offshore – in the event of a spill.

“The enormous environmental damage done in the Gulf of Mexico is something we don’t want to see here,” Metchosin Coun. Moralea Milne said.

Other delegates said the Enbridge pipeline would cross hundreds of northern streams and rivers and bring 225 tankers a year to Kitimat, through north coast waters prone to hurricane-force winds.

Stunning, and wonderful news that is likely tying some hefty knots in the knickers of Enbridge exec’s and trough-feeders like former Prince George mayor turned Enbridge propaganda artist , Colin Kinsley, who worked in the natural gas industry prior to moving into politics.

The question is, will we see this very newsworthy item on the front page locally?

6 thoughts on “One more nail in the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline coffin as B.C. Mayors vote against the highly contentious project.”

  1. Off topic Laila, but…..

    In my opinion Jeff Nagel if the Effin’ King of the Beats.

    (as in ‘beat’ writers)

    You all are lucky to have him working in Surrey.

    .

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  2. Agreed. He often breaks and features large stories that carry provincial impact, and in my opinion, is an A+ asset to The Leader, my favorite Surrey paper. They have more than a few great reporters on staff.

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  4. Here’s how the Chetwynd mayor voted:

    From Jeff’s article:

    “One of the few politicians who bucked the anti-oil sentiment was Chetwynd Mayor Evan Saugstad.

    He said UBCM shouldn’t try to short-circuit the federal and provincial environmental reviews examining the Enbridge project or entrench the existing informal moratorium on offshore exploration.

    “To simply say we can’t do something based on popular opinion isn’t, I think, the right thing to do for an institution like UBCM.” ”

    Mayor Saugstad is currently employed by Spectra Energy as a Community Coordinator for their expansion projects in northeast BC.

    SPECTRA ENERGY – WESTCOAST ENERGY INC PIPELINE DIV. – Total Contribution For This Search: $16,670.00

    From the BC Political Contributions database.

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  5. Perhaps the enthusiastic Mayor Saugstad will volunteer to BE an on call emergency plug – in the event of a rupture in the Enbridge Pipedream. He could prepare himself to be a cross between the infamous British Petroleum “hot shot” and the Millenium Plug – Hard hat and safety gear option for the non-ethically challenged Mayor.

    I can’t seem to keep track without a database of all the pipeline ruptures and spills (and who’s spilling what/where) but it seems as if Enbridge alone has had a dozen or so recently in North America alone – Kalamazoo River, somewhere in Illinois, and so on……and then there is BP, Gordo’s choice to frac methane shale beds in the Flathead Valley. Perhaps the drillers, frackers and pipers should use the motto – if we build it, it will rupture (and maybe even explode)!

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  6. We export raw logs, coal, gravel,why not raw oil sand by train, simply load it up on existing coal trains, no pipe lines required ,no fuss,no mess , no oil pipe line spills.No oil to spill from tankers.
    This way the exporters take the bad with good .

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