ADVISORY: VANCOUVERITES, ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS AND FIRST NATIONS SHOW SUPPORT FOR CITY TAKING BC TO COURT OVER KINDER MORGAN

Who:

Charlene Aleck, Tsleil-Waututh Nation Sacred Trust Initiative, spokesperson

Peter McCartney, Wilderness Committee, Climate Campaigner

Kate Hodgson, University of BC Community 350.org (UBCc350)

and other Vancouver residents

What: Press Conference on the steps of city hall before residents speak at city council meeting in support of a motion for Vancouver City Council to direct staff to proceed with requesting a judicial review of the Province of British Columbia’s decision to give environmental approval to Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project in BC.

Where: At the George Vancouver Statue on the North Steps – Vancouver City Hall

Or watch the livestream on our Facebook page.

When: 12 noon Wednesday, February 8th, 2017

Why: 
“With such a fundamentally broken NEB process for such a dangerous project, the Premier’s granting of permits was shameful. We urge the City of Vancouver to take the Province to court to rectify this farce of an approval.” – Peter McCartney, Wilderness Committee 

“First Nations have not been treated with respect by the Premier Clark. We have not been consulted adequately. I am here to say thanks to the City of Vancouver for showing leadership where the Provincial government has not.” – Charlene Aleck, Tsleil-Waututh Nation 

“As a young person, I feel that the BC government is being really short-sighted in approving this pipeline. Climate leaders don’t build pipelines. Vancouver should be challenging these permits.” – Kate Hodgson, University of BC Community 350.org (UBCc350)

Motion B.1 on Council Agenda of February 7, 2017:  Judicial Review of Provincial Government Decision to Approve Kinder Morgan’s Pipeline Expansion Project

MOVER: Councillor Carr

SECONDER: Councillor Reimer

WHEREAS

1. On January 11, 2017, the Province of British Columbia (BC) announced its decision to issue an environmental assessment certificate to Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project in BC, noting that its five conditions, including world-leading oil response capacity, had been met;

2. On January 13, 2016, the BC Supreme Court ruled that the Province must conduct its own environmental assessment review process for the Northern Gateway pipeline project, instead of signing an “equivalency agreement” that gives the federal government sole responsibility for environmental assessment as the Province did with both the Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan pipeline projects;

3. The Provincial environmental assessment process requires consultation with First Nations, opportunities for the involvement of the public and all interested parties and technical studies to identify and examine potential significant adverse effects, none of which were undertaken by the Province, which appears to have relied on environmental assessments produced by the NEB process in regards to its January 11, 2017, environmental approval of the Kinder Morgan project;

4. The City of Vancouver, in its submissions as an intervenor in the National Energy Board’s Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion project process, noted the faulty environmental assessment process, including the absence of any modelling of the effects of a bitumen spill in Vancouver’s marine environment—making it impossible to develop a “world-leading” oil spill response strategy.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT Vancouver City Council direct staff to proceed with requesting a judicial review of the Province of British Columbia’s decision to give environmental approval to Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project in BC.