Philippine Asian News Today Vol 18 No 22 | Page 17

November 16 - 30, 2016

PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY

Trudeau approves Trans Mountain...
month — prompting
concerns diluted bitumen
could be released into an
ecologically sensitive area.
Trudeau
said
the
government expects Kinder
Morgan to “meet and exceed”
the 157 conditions the NEB

emission sources must be
made to compensate for
more oil-based emissions.”
Activists have been
lining up to oppose the
project, with one B.C. First
Nation near the project’s route
warning its construction could

imposed on the project in
April, including spill-mitigation
plans. He also pointed to the a
$1.5-billion ocean protection
plan he announced earlier this
month to improve responses
to tanker and fuel spills in the
Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic
oceans.
“If I thought this project
was unsafe for the B.C. coast,
I would reject it. This is a
decision based on rigorous
debate on science and
evidence. We have not been,
and will not be swayed by
political arguments, be they
local, regional or national,”
the prime minister told
reporters.
Natural
Resources
Minister Jim Carr appointed
a ministerial panel to review
Trans Mountain in June — a
process separate from the
NEB — and commissioned
Environment Canada to study
the project’s upstream GHG
emissions.
The
Canadian
Environmental Assessment
Agency estimates that the new
capacity will result in roughly
13.5 to 17 megatonnes of
additional GHG emissions
each year.
When fully operational,
the pipeline will produce 20 to
26 megatonnes of emissions,
the
report
concludes,
although, it also suggests
those numbers could be
lower if oil prices hover below
$60 a barrel, as growth in
oilsands production could be
curtailed.
“The approvals raise
grave doubts how these and
additional pipelines, including
Keystone XL and Energy
East, can fit with Canada’s
commitment to the Paris
climate agreement,” Patrick
DeRochie, the director of
Environmental Defence, said.
“Much bigger cuts in other

threaten the community’s
very “survival,” and it has not
ruled out protests and court
action.
Other First Nations,
including 39 in B.C. and
Alberta, have signed “mutual
benefit agreements” with the
project’s proponent, U.S.based Kinder Morgan. Those
deals will deliver money
and jobs to First Nations
communities. The company
said that it has reached
agreements with all First
Nations communities where
the project crosses a reserve.
Trudeau said he doesn’t
expect all Canadians to
agree with the decision, and
indeed
environmentalists
lined up shortly after the
announcement to denounce
the approvals.
Green Party Leader
Elizabeth May said she
would be “willing to go to
jail” to stop Trans Mountain’s
construction.
“Apparently
Justin
Trudeau’s sunny ways mean
dark days ahead for climate
action
and
Indigenous
reconciliation in Canada. With
this announcement, Prime
Minister Trudeau has broken
his climate commitments,
broken his commitments to
Indigenous rights, and has
declared war on B.C.,” Mike
Hudema, a campaigner for
Greenpeace, added in a
statement.
Community opposition
has “never been stronger,”
Jessica Clogg, senior counsel
at West Coast Environmental
Law, said. “As we’ve seen with
Northern Gateway, that’s what
will prevent this pipeline from
ever being built.”
There have already been
11 judicial reviews launched
over the NEB review, and
more court challenges are

expected in the coming days.
Despite the opposition,
Kinder Morgan forecasts
the expansion will create
15,000 jobs a year during
construction, and a further
37,000 direct and indirect jobs
for every year of operation.
It also estimates expanded
operations will deliver an
additional $46.7 billion in
government revenues for all
levels of government in the
first 20 years. The bulk of that
money, $19.4 billion, would
flow to Alberta.
Construction of the
expansion is slated to
begin next September, with
a tentative start date of
December 2019.
The Enbridge-backed
Northern Gateway, a proposed
1,177-kilometre
pipeline,
would have carried oil from
Bruderheim, Alberta to an
export terminal in Kitimat,
B.C.
“It has become clear that
this project is not in the best
interest of the local affected
communities,
including
Indigenous Peoples,” Trudeau
said, describing the local area
as the “jewel” of B.C.
“The
Great
Bear
Rainforest is no place for a
pipeline and the Douglas
Channel is no place for oil
tanker traffic.”
The Federal Court had
previously overturned the
Harper government’s approval
of the $7.9-billion project,
as it found Ottawa had not
adequately consulted First
Nations along the project’s
route.
Interim
Conservative
Leader Rona Ambrose said
she was disappointed to see
the government take the
Northern Gateway project off
the table and “kill 4,000 jobs,”
suggesting the termin