Kinder Morgan leaves half of Vancouver, Burnaby's pipeline questions unanswered
Cities' mayors call on National Energy Board to force pipeline company to address issues
Kinder Morgan has failed to answer almost half of the questions posed by the cities of Vancouver and Burnaby on the company's proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion into B.C.
In a statement issued Friday, the City of Vancouver states that Kinder Morgan has failed to answer 291 of nearly 600 questions submitted by them through the National Energy Board (NEB), and 315 of the 688 questions submitted by Burnaby.
The more than 1200 questions submitted by the two municipalities covered a broad range of issues connected to Kinder Morgan's 15,000-page proposal, including those covering job creation levels, climate change and emergency response plans.
"Because the city has very significant questions that focus on the hundreds of ways in which Kinder Morgan’s proposed pipeline and tank farm would threaten our city and region’s safety, security and livability, we again asked Kinder Morgan to provide answers," Burnaby mayor Derek Corrigan said in the statement.
"Unfortunately – but not surprisingly – Kinder Morgan has again failed to show respect for our citizens’ questions by refusing to answer almost half."
Redacted safety plan
Vancouver and Burnaby say they will continue to call on the NEB to force Kinder Morgan to address these outstanding issues.
Just last week, Kinder Morgan defended its decision to only provide a heavily redacted version of its emergency spill response plan.
The company is seeking approval from the NEB to nearly triple the capacity of the existing pipeline. The $5.4 billion project would twin the existing pipeline that runs from Edmonton to Burnaby, B.C.
The National Energy Board (NEB) ruled in favour of Kinder Morgan's redacted plan in January.
"In this instance, the board is satisfied that sufficient information has been filed from the existing EMP [Emergency Management Plan] documents to meet the board’s requirements at this stage in the process," the decision read.
At that time, Premier Christy Clark said Kinder Morgan hadn't met the five conditions set out by the province, and until that happened, it wouldn't be going ahead with the project.