Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion opponents demand updated project cost
Credit to Author: Gordon Hoekstra| Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2019 17:40:32 +0000
Opponents of the Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion projects want the Trudeau government to provide an updated construction-cost estimate.
The estimated cost has already risen significantly, to $9.3 billion from $5.4 billion.
The latest cost figure is from 2018, contained in documents filed by Houston, Texas-based Kinder Morgan with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The financial documents were filed for Kinder Morgan’s prospective sale of the expansion project and the existing Trans Mountain Pipeline to the Canadian government for $4.5 billion.
West Coast Environmental Law Association lawyer Eugene Kung said Tuesday that the federal government should provide an updated construction cost figure because the information is needed to have a fulsome discussion on the project and judge its viability.
West Coast Environmental Law, the Dogwood Initiative, Stand.earth, SumOfUs and the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs have launched a petition calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau to tell Canadians how much the expansion project will cost.
“Financial information is being hidden,” Kung said at a Vancouver news conference to highlight their demand.
All three groups are opposed to the project and do not want it to be built, citing oil-spill and climate-change concerns.
The project — now expected to be completed by 2022 — has been delayed several times and continues to face court challenges from First Nations. Other First Nations support the project and are eyeing an ownership stake, which the Trudeau government has said is a possibility.
Eugene Kung, lawyer with the West Coast Environmental Law Association.
In a written response to Postmedia, federal finance department officials said the Trans Mountain Corp. will update the cost once it has secured additional regulatory permits that will result in a better understanding of scheduling.
Finance officials did not say when the cost update would take place.
In its response, officials also asserted the project remains commercially viable.
The Trudeau government approved the project a second time in the summer.
It was forced to reconsider the project after the Federal Court of Appeal ruled in August 2018 that Ottawa had not adequately consulted the six First Nations that had challenged the project’s approval, and “unjustifiably” had not considered increased tanker traffic related to the project, which will have a negative effect on endangered killer whales.
The second approval came after another round of First Nations consultations, and Trudeau said the government had listened to First Nations and taken action on concerns around salmon, the Salish Sea and the need for better response to a spill into the ocean.
Several First Nations have appealed that latest government approval, with hearings to begin next week.
Canada purchased the Trans Mountain expansion project and the existing pipeline in the spring of 2018 after Kinder Morgan signalled it was going to pull the plug because of uncertainty and opposition to the project, in particular from the B.C. NDP government.
The existing Trans Mountain Pipeline was built in the early 1950s.
The expansion project would twin the existing pipeline along much of its route from Edmonton to Burnaby.
Backed by oil producers, the Alberta government, business groups and some unions, the project would triple capacity, allowing increased ocean shipments from the Alberta oilsands to the U.S. West Coast and open new markets in Asia.
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