Indigenous fight against pipelines in B.C.
By: Tami Starlight
Written on unceded Coast Salish Territory. (Downtown Eastside)
There is a difference between “opinion” and “facts”, regarding the proposed oil and gas pipelines in BC and badly mismanaged resource extraction in general. Unfortunately the extraction industry, like Enbridge and Kinder Morgan, have a lot of financial clout. Relative to that is their influence on the media and some of the indigenous populations.
The indigenous struggle to maintain their cultural way of life is well documented. This continues with the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and the current Kinder Morgan – Trans Mountain pipeline. Kinder Morgan has recently proposed to more than double the shipment of bitumen from the Alberta Tar Sands Giga-project to the Burrard Inlet (settler name) where it will be pumped onto waiting tankers to be shipped to Asia.
These 2 massive projects related to the Alberta Tar Sands Giga-project are troubling even to the most seasoned activists, environmentalists, and the hereditary elders of the nations directly affected.
Enbridge’s “Northern Gateway” bid is to build two pipelines from Bruderheim, 60 kilometres northeast of Edmonton, along a 1,172-kilometre route to Kitimat on the B.C. coast.
So called “public hearings” have been held in multiple communities to date. I say “so called” because one needs to book attendance well in advance and that process is difficult at best. Every “public hearing” has been massively overcrowded and many could not attend due to lack of space. Over 130 indigenous communities have been quite vocal about their resistance to the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline.
The federal government is now attempting to diminish public oversight over environmentally destructive projects with the “omnibus budget bill” – Bill C38. Protecting our communities’ air/water/land from corporations has become more difficult.
At the beginning of May, 2012, Enbridge spent millions on a public ad campaign designed to sway public opinion from a negative to positive view of the project.
Certainly public resistance has grown and will continue. We at the DT-East hope you all stay informed and be vocal about the resistance to the ramping up of corporate greed to extract every bit of resources in this colony called Kanata – in particular the push for the pipelines across native/first nations (unceded) territories.
All our relations
Regarding the Kinder Morgan pipeline ending at Burrard Inlet, that is a mistake, since the plan is to twin the existing pipeline, which ends in Burnaby, and already has some parts of it doubled :
“…. the capacity of the pipeline system, which follows an 1,150-kilometre route between Edmonton, Alberta and Burnaby, British Columbia, has been increased a number of times by twinning parts of the line and adding associated facilities.
Kinder Morgan Canada is proposing to expand the capacity of the existing pipeline system, including the Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby, based on commitments received from its customers during its recent Open Season process, which was held from October 2011 to April 2012.
At present, the Westridge Marine Terminal handles approximately eight vessels per month, representing less than three per cent of the total traffic in Port Metro Vancouver. Based on the proposed expansion project, the number of vessels and barges being loaded at the Westridge Marine Terminal could increase to approximately 25 per month in 2017, representing less than ten per cent of today’s total Port Metro Vancouver vessel traffic.”
http://www.transmountain.com/project/project-overview/