no pipeline, no tankers, no problem 2

Resisting Kinder Morgan with Song and Prayer

Saturday, May 5 at 10 AM - 3 PM

Burnaby 200 Soccer Field - 8505 Forest Grove Dr, Burnaby BC

Come join a multi-faith choir and a Muslim meditation group on Burnaby Mountain as they add to the spiritual opposition against the Kinder Morgan pipeline.

To sign up to take bold action and for the supporting rally, visit – http://eepurl.com/dtDtx9

Justin Trudeau’s Two-Faced Climate Game

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On the home front, Mr. Trudeau asserts that pressing forward serves the “national interest.” He has repeatedly declared the “pipeline will get built” by citing a clause in Canada’s Constitution the government could employ to override provinces for projects of nationwide importance. Yet Canadians largely wouldn’t benefit under this scheme because most oil revenues don’t flow to public coffers, rather, increasingly to foreign companies. Even the supposed Asian demand has been vastly exaggerated. Exporting raw bitumen also would ship away potential refinery jobs. And legal experts argue that so-called national interest doesn’t trump Aboriginal rights that are equally enshrined in the Constitution.

Big-footing British Columbia and its First Nations, even if constitutionally viable, would likely damage Mr. Trudeau politically. Is he willing to tarnish his image and Canada’s peaceful reputation by deploying the military? He’s now in a familiar standoff against some of the country’s most tenacious environmentalists, reared in the birthplace of Greenpeace. In the 1990s, the “War in the Woods” protests against the logging of old-growth trees in Clayoquot Sound prompted major changes to provincial forestry policy; it was ultimately named a Unesco Biosphere Reserve. Fifteen years later, pitting the army against Indigenous grandmothers and teenagers simply for protecting their waters and the Earth could jeopardize 18 of his party’s parliamentary seats.

Mr. Trudeau all the while is keeping up appearances abroad, like recently vowing to “redouble” climate efforts with President Emmanuel Macron of France. That smacks of duplicity when a day earlier he offered public money to backstop the pipeline. Should the government guarantee investment, the company could attempt construction with minimized risk, and if that fails, head home while casting Canada’s politicians as an inept scapegoat (and potentially setting up a multi-billion-dollar lawsuit against Canada under Nafta). But it’s a long shot for sureties so soon.

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Whether he likes it or not, Mr. Trudeau is left with but one viable option: discard the pipeline and focus on greener pastures. To create jobs, he should ramp up the environmentally sustainable infrastructure program he campaigned on and pivot to the accelerating renewable energy sector.

Mr. Trudeau speaks persuasively about Canada’s leadership on climate, but in reality he’s trying for the impossible: to convince every side that he can please them. A pipeline will either go in the ground, or it won’t. The prime minister must show he’s worthy of his job before the 2019 election and act decisively. Rather than choosing between the provinces, or the oil lobby and eco-conscious voters, he should think hard about what best embodies his “sunny ways” principles — justice, science and saving the planet.

Trudeau can use declaratory power to build the pipeline — just watch him

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Never mind, says Justin Trudeau: “This pipeline will get built.” In Vancouver on Monday, Trudeau said Trans Mountain would mean cheaper gas for Vancouver, where it currently costs $1.60 per litre, the highest price in North America, next door to the oil sands.

Well then, he needs a bill to approve it, and his government needs to get a move on and fast track legislation through the House and Senate. With the House out for the Victoria break the week after next, there’s only 16 sitting days left before the Kinder Morgan deadline expires.

The government can’t do this with a Cabinet order—that would be too susceptible to legal challenge. The prime minister needs something that’s court-proof, and it’s called the Constitution.

The government can invoke Section 92 (10) of the Constitution Act, but Parliament must approve it.

Section 92 (10 a) of the Constitution establishes federal jurisdiction over interprovincial and international transportation over railways, canals and “other works and undertakings.” TMX fits that description, literally down to the ground.

But the bigger trump card for the feds is Section 92 (10 c), the declaratory power, under which Ottawa can declare an undertaking to be “for the general advantage of Canada,” or for “the advantage of two or more of the provinces.”

The declaratory power hasn’t been invoked since 1993, declaring Canada’s nuclear energy industry to be within federal jurisdiction. In all, the declaratory power has been invoked on over 400 occasions, only once since 1961, nearly two-thirds of them to approve railway routes.

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The duty to consult First Nations has been affirmed by the Supreme Court pursuant to Section 35 of the 1982 Constitution Act on aboriginal rights, but it’s not part of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Seven B.C. First Nations are challenging the pipeline in the federal court of appeal, and the cities of Vancouver and Burnaby support their case. And now the question has arisen as to whether the consultations before the 2016 green-lighting of TMX by the feds were essentially a just-for-show process show as part of a pre-determined decision.

When the NDP raised this in question period Tuesday, Trudeau said the government conducted “the most vast consultations in the history of our country.” He went on to add: “We are moving forward with a project in the national interest.”

Then where’s the necessary legislation? The Conservatives would support a bill in a heart beat while the NDP, conflicted between their provincial governments in B.C. and Alberta, have called for a reference to the Supreme Court.

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None of which mitigates the political risk to Trudeau in Alberta and B.C. The Liberals are already in danger of losing their three seats in Alberta, and could lose up to 10 of their 18 B.C. seats if progressive voters in the lower mainland and Vancouver migrate to the NDP over the pipeline. However, an Angus Reid poll last week found support for TMX in B.C. had increased from 48 to 54 per cent over the last month, with majority support in all regions of the province.

Kinder Morgan shareholders' vote for environmental accountability seen as victory by Trans Mountain opponents

A Kinder Morgan shareholder vote for an annual environmental sustainability report indicates investor concern about the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion proposal, says an Indigenous leader who addressed the company's annual shareholder meeting in Houston on Wednesday.

Chief Judy Wilson was among a group of Canadian Indigenous leaders who reaffirmed their opposition to the Trans Mountain proposal at the meeting where shareholders passed two of three non-binding proposals calling for improved environmental reporting.

Wilson represents the Neskonlith Band of the Secwepemc Nation, which holds land title over a stretch of more than 500 kilometres of the proposed 980 kilometre pipeline, and is fighting the pipeline expansion in court.

"The passage of the sustainability reporting resolution is a victory and a sign that institutional shareholders are concerned about the opposition to the Trans Mountain expansion project and the perceived lack of understanding that the company has demonstrated of the rights of indigenous people," Wilson told a news conference following the meeting.

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Opposition is firm, Wilson says

The proposed new line would mostly carry diluted bitumen and other heavier oils.

“No matter what the Canadian government does to address political or financial risk, it will not change our resolve to oppose the project. This will result in more delay, risk and uncertainty,” Wilson told Kinder Morgan investors while moving the resolution calling for the company to issue annual sustainability reports, which passed with a majority of votes.

Wilson said another Indigenous leader, Rueben George, of Tsleil-Waututh Nation, had spoken to the company’s annual meeting two and three years ago to warn the company that the pipeline expansion would not be built, and that it seemed Kinder Morgan was finally coming around to this reality.

“…We are sorry that all this time and money has been spent. It could have been avoided, and having a sustainability report might have allowed your board of directors to more accurately evaluate these project risks,” she said.

Alberta rolls out $1.2 million pro-pipeline ad campaign

Alberta is rolling out an advertising campaign primarily targeting British Columbians to drum up support for the Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion.

Premier Rachel Notley announced Thursday that the province is spending $1.2-million to convince the public that Texas-based Kinder Morgan’s proposed pipeline linking Alberta oil producers to a terminal in Metro Vancouver would benefit all Canadians.

Billboards supporting the massive west coast pipeline expansion project — which has provoked a provincial struggle and split public opinion — have been going up in B.C. over the last week in Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna and Kamloops, Notley said at a news conference at the legislature in Edmonton.

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Notley says proposed new law ‘putting pressure’

Notley also said she expects passage soon of new provincial legislation, Bill 12, which will give Alberta the ability to restrict energy shipments to B.C..

Kinder Morgan oil spill volume from 2013 was quadruple the reported amount

After persistently prodding the National Energy Board, pipeline critic David Ellis finally got a report on Kinder Morgan's two oil spills along the Trans Mountain pipeline route. The spills happened last June, and had temporarily shut the pipeline down for investigation.

What he saw on page two of Kinder Morgan's Engineering Assessment floored him. It stated that instead of just 20-25 barrels spilled near the Coquihalla Canyon, the pipeline leaked well over quadruple that amount. 

Ellis had wondered why Kinder Morgan was removing some 5,005 cubic metres (over 600 truckloads) of oil-contaminated soil from the area.  It seemed excessive, which led him to comment at the time: “there's been more oil spilled than [Kinder Morgan] is saying.”

His suspicions were confirmed by the report, which said a subsequent analysis “resulted in a revised estimated release volume of approximately 18 m3” --  or about 113 barrels of oil spilled in the park area.....

What’s behind Kinder Morgan’s May 31 ultimatum? Follow the money

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Kinder Morgan has known since late last June that British Columbia’s newly elected government ran on a promise to stop the project arguing it is not in the public interest. Premier Horgan has not betrayed the public trust by breaking his election promises as did Prime Minister Trudeau. Kinder Morgan failed to take Horgan seriously. The company should have. It is Kinder Morgan’s shareholders who should bear the cost of Kinder Morgan’s executive decisions — not taxpayers.

Kinder Morgan’s fanfare announcement is a cover-up. Trans Mountain pipeline expansion lacked commercial viability from the get-go. It has required government supported handouts at every stage of development. Kinder Morgan has put very little shareholder capital at risk. It has always looked to others — the shippers, Canadian investors and Canadian taxpayers — to do so.

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Why so much?

KMI washed its hands of financial accountability to, and financial responsibility for, Trans Mountain’s expansion back in 2014, but did not need to provide an alternate financing plan for the project until it was certain Ottawa would give the green light.

KMI attempted to find a joint-venture partner for the project but there were no takers. It then decided to hive off its Canadian assets into a public entity and one year ago, KML was born.

None of the proceeds from KML’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) were retained for use in the project. The $1.7 billion capital KML raised in Canada was sent to Houston to pay down debt the parent company, KMI, owes.

Last July, KMI (the U.S. parent) announced that KML would be self-financing. It identified the outstanding equity the Canadian company would need: KML would need to raise $2.1 billion.

The NEB based its recommendation to approve Trans Mountain’s expansion — and Cabinet in turn based its decision to grant the certificate — on a financial commitment Kinder Morgan publicly broke without so much as a sideway glance from Natural Resources Canada (responsible for the NEB) or the Department of Finance (now behind the bail-out package).

KML raised $550 million through two preferred share offerings between August and December 2017, but costs over the past year have mounted sending the requirement north of $2 billion.

Canada and a Texas energy company want a First Nation to pay for their legal fees over stalled pipeline project

Canada and an American energy company want a First Nation in British Columbia to pay for their legal fees following ‘significant’ delay and prejudice to a stalled pipeline expansion project.

A lawyer for Texas-based Kinder Morgan made this request in a newly-released court submission from May 14 that was sent to the Federal Court of Appeal. Counsel for Canada’s Attorney General, Jody Wilson-Raybould, made a similar request in a separate submission on May 11.

The submissions were responding to an extraordinary motion submitted on May 2 by the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, requesting that the court compel the government to release uncensored copies of federal documents cited in a recent investigation by National Observer, including the release of new secret cabinet documents.

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Neither the company, nor the government denies that the high-ranking official provided these instructions, but they both claim any such behaviour is “irrelevant” because it doesn’t reflect the “actions” taken by Trudeau’s government in its official meetings with the affected First Nations.

At least four other First Nations disagree and have supported the Tseil-Waututh Nation’s motion in separate court filings.

In each case, these nations — the Coldwater Indian Band, the Stk’emlupsemc te Secwepemc (SSN), the Squamish Nation, and the Upper Nicola Band, say that the documents show that the government believed its approach was “legally sound” before it had even shared a report with the affected First Nations explaining how it planned to accommodate their concerns.

All of these submissions fit into an existing legal challenge to Trudeau’s approval of the Trans Mountain project, which has been mired in delays. Several First Nations have asked the court to overturn the approval because they alleged that the government failed in its legal duty to consult them, as required under Canada’s Constitution.

Trudeau’s support of Kinder Morgan leading to a ‘flashpoint’ of Indigenous resistance

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lied to Indigenous people when he said there was no relationship more important to him than with the First Peoples of this land when he was elected in 2015, says a grand chief in Quebec.

Grand Chief Serge Simon of the Kanesatake Mohawk Council said the proof is in Trudeau’s tireless support of expanding Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline.

Earlier this week, the federal government said it will go as far as pay Kinder Morgan for any costs for construction delays and are still considering passing new laws to put the pipeline in the ground from Alberta to Burnaby, B.C.

“Trudeau has said in the past his most important relationship was that with the First Nations and with this that is proving that was a lie. It’s not true,” said Simon on Nation to Nation Thursday.

“It’s very alarming that the government would go that far to protect an outside interest like Kinder Morgan, a Texas-based corporation.”....

Trudeau government ‘sought to suppress the evidence’ of pipeline ‘gamesmanship,' say court documents

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Canada acted in 'bad faith,' says Tsleil-Waututh Nation lawyers

While the new filing by lawyers for the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, has not been accepted by the court, the Tsleil-Waututh say that the government has been trying to conceal evidence.

“It would appear that Canada, relying on the fast pace of this proceeding, sought to suppress the evidence in question, gambling that the Court would decide the matter before the details of its bad faith could come to light,” said the letter from lawyers Scott Smith and Paul Seaman, who are representing the Tsleil-Waututh Nation.

“… TWN submits that any delay that can be associated with it being forced to bring this motion at this late hour arises from the gamesmanship and tactical behaviour exhibited by Canada.”

Lawyers for the Tsleil-Waututh say that the First Nation's efforts to assess the project and get access to federal records about its impacts have been stymied by the Trudeau government at every turn.

They have also expressed skepticism about Canada and Kinder Morgan’s arguments that their motion to review new evidence be rejected since the two pro-pipeline partners have not directly denied the central argument in the Tsleil-Waututh’s case, which has been supported by other First Nations such as the Coldwater Indian Band, the Squamish Nation, the Stk’emlupsemc te Secwepemc Nation, and the Upper Nicola Band.

“Conspicuously, however, Canada does not directly contest that the documents in fact establish what TWN alleges they do. Thus, in making such arguments, the respondents essentially ask the Court to turn a proverbial ‘blind eye’ to key information relating to the process Canada opted to employ, and then rely on, in approaching consultation.”

Lawyers Smith and Seaman have specifically asked the court to review 15 separate documents that were censored by the government prior to being released to National Observer through access to information (ATIP) legislation, and compel the government to uncensor portions that have been kept secret.

They also asked the court to reject arguments raised by Canada and Kinder Morgan subsidiary Trans Mountain (TM) that the evidence wouldn’t be relevant.

For Sale: Stalled Pipeline Project, Protesters Included

Justin Trudeau’s pipeline nightmare may be only getting started.

As Kinder Morgan Inc. drives a hard bargain in Canada’s attempt to save the Houston-based company’s embattled Trans Mountain project, the prime minister could end up fighting for an asset that hardly anybody wants. Pipeline giant Enbridge Inc., for one, signaled it doesn’t.

Trudeau’s government upped the ante this week, with Finance Minister Bill Morneau pledging to indemnify the C$7.4 billion ($5.8 billion) project for politically motivated delays and backstop any company willing to take it on. Trudeau said “there are alternatives if Kinder Morgan” decides it wants out.

Alberta’s oil sands are a crucial part of Canada’s economy and the expanded pipeline to British Columbia’s shore could help get better prices for the country’s crude in Asia. But finding an alternative investor in the face of fierce opposition in the coastal province would be easier said than done, according to Jihad Traya, manager of strategic energy advisory services for HSB Solomon Associates LLC in Calgary.

“I’m a little perplexed,” Traya said, adding that any attempt to sell the project would be very cumbersome. “So, what part are they going to take over? The expansion? And then, that creates some very interesting intra-agency issues.”.....

Wednesday May 23rd
2pm Walk Out
3pm Community Rally Vancouver Art Gallery, North Plaza (750 Hornby Street)

Canada Wide 2 PM - 5 PM

On May 23rd at 2 pm, high school and other youth across the country will walk out of class, sending a clear message to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (the self-proclaimed Youth Minister) that our land, climate and water and future are more important to us than this dangerous pipeline that does not have Indigenous consent.

Liberal MP Terry Beech explains why he won't get arrested over Kinder Morgan

Liberal MP Terry Beech wades into the front lines of daily protest on Burnaby Mountain, saying he doesn't want to get arrested but wants to ensure that those who do are treated with respect.

He speaks calmly and confidently about the federal government's approval of Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline proposal — a project he has previously voted against in the House of Commons and one that he says the majority of his constituents currently oppose.

Beech has been one of Kinder Morgan’s most outspoken opponents, but he also explains how he is taking a pragmatic approach — now that the project has been approved — to find ways to make it better.

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Nearly 60 per cent of Terry Beech's constituents oppose Trans Mountain expansion

Beech’s office recently sent out a survey to 44,000 households in the riding asking them what his top priority should be. Several hundred people mailed in responses to the open-ended query and the results were unequivocal.

Some 58 per cent of the respondents said they were opposed to the expansion project, while 42 per cent supported it. These numbers contrast with other recent public opinion polls, surveying residents across the country, that appear to indicate a majority of Canadians support the pipeline, despite concerns raised by the project's opponents about spills and the potential impact on Canada’s national climate change goals.

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The Liberal MP says he is there to make sure they are being treated with respect, but won’t go as far as his colleagues in Parliament, Stewart and May, who were arrested for violating the court injunction.

“As somebody that creates laws, I think it’s our responsibility to follow the rule of law because we expect every other Canadian to follow the rule of law,” he adds. “So you will never see me up here getting arrested. I come up here to make sure that everybody is treated with respect and the like. But the other thing is that there was a very significant due process, and my constituents, as a member of the government and as an officer of the government, expect to me as proficient a member as possible and deliver on a whole threshold of issues.”

'Fine line'

The issue of whether the government respected the rule of law when it approved the project is currently before the Federal Court of Appeal. Several First Nations and local municipalities, Burnaby and Vancouver, have asked the court to quash Trudeau’s decision, arguing that the government failed in its legal duty to consult First Nations, which is required under Section 35 of Canada’s Constitution.

Canadian Taxpayers Held Hostage by Kinder Morgan

The Trudeau federal government has made itself a pathetic hostage to a Texas-based pipeline company known for its cheapness and debt.

The economic sleaziness of the drama, which should upset most Canadians, has been largely ignored by the financial mainstream press.

But here’s the rub: Kinder Morgan doesn’t have the money it needs to twin a high-risk $7.4 billion pipeline, and has been looking for a way out for some time.

Meanwhile, it has blamed entirely predictable and expected project delays on the B.C. government as well as First Nations and municipal resistance to the pipeline.

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At that point Finance Minister Bill Morneau probably blanched.

Last week he temporarily emerged from negotiations and tried to outflank the Texans by promising that the government would compensate Kinder Morgan, or any other interested pipeline builder, for any losses incurred for political reasons while twinning the unnecessary Trans Mountain line to Vancouver.

Steven Kean, CEO of Kinder Morgan Canada, replied that wasn’t good enough: “We are not yet in alignment and will not negotiate in public.”

It is instructive that the Kinder Morgan executive delivering the big bill for taxpayers is none other than Enron’s former senior vice president of government affairs.

But money and not political uncertainty — a reliable companion of the project from the first day of public hearings — is the central issue here.

Faced with the iron law of megaprojects (“over schedule and over budget and over and over again”), Kinder Morgan simply wants to walk away from an unviable project whose costs have ballooned from $5.4 billion to more than $7.4 billion.

The con game has been unfolding for several years now.....

..txs quizzical, i'll check that link out.

“We are going to not allow Kinder Morgan to finish this pipeline”

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Yesterday in Seattle, over 200 km south of where the pipeline hits the coast, hundreds of “kayactivists” took to the water to protest against the pipeline.

They were part of a demonstration by the US environmental group, Mosquito Fleet, Greenpeace US and Sierra Club that organised a rally in the city against Kinder Morgan’s proposed pipeline expansion.

Tensions are certainly rising. Kinder Morgan has given the Federal government of Canada until the end of the month to resolve outstanding financial and legal issues surrounding the pipeline. Last week, in order to appease the Texan oil company, Trudeau’s Government announced that it will effectively give the Kinder Morgan a “blank cheque” “to indemnify” the pipeline “against any financial loss,” suffered if they build the pipeline.

The move sems to have backfired and emboldened everyone fighting the pipeline. And as the May 31 deadline gets closer, there is a growing awareness not only of the threat that the pipeline poses to the climate, but also to marine life as it would massively increase the tanker traffic up the West Coast of Canada and US.

..a relatively new and growing international community working together.

236 International Orgs Call on Trudeau to Quit Support for Kinder Morgan

Today, an open letter signed by 236 international civil society organizations in 44 countries called on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to stop backing the Kinder Morgan tar sands pipeline project and begin planning for a managed decline of fossil fuel production.

The letter points out the clear contradiction between Prime Minister Trudeau’s unchecked support for the Kinder Morgan pipeline project and his commitments to Indigenous reconciliation through the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and his obligation to address climate change through the Paris Agreement.

“Indigenous peoples and First Nations are on the frontlines of both climate impacts and climate solutions,” said Carroll Muffett of the Center for International Environmental Law. “Approving the Kinder Morgan pipeline without the free, prior and informed consent of First Nations undermines UNDRIP, the Paris Agreement and the world’s shared interest in a safe climate.”

Kinder Morgan abandons a permit application as Ottawa ponders Trans Mountain takeover

Speculation is mounting in Ottawa that the Trudeau government is poised to take over the embattled Trans Mountain pipeline project after its Texas-based proponent, Kinder Morgan, cancelled a federal construction permit application needed to pursue the oil pipeline and tanker expansion.

The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority confirmed in a May 14 email, obtained by National Observer, that the company had withdrawn an application to build a temporary construction barge on the West Coast that would have been needed to pursue the project.

"The applicant for the above-noted proposed project has advised us that they are no longer planning on pursuing this proposal and requested that their permit application be withdrawn/cancelled," said an official from the federal agency in a May 14 email sent to the Tsleil-Waututh Nation in the Burrard Inlet of B.C. "Our review of the proposed project is therefore cancelled."

The application is among more than 1,000 permits needed for Trans Mountain to proceed with construction on the project, which aims to triple the capacity of its existing system to transport up to 890,000 barrels of diluted bitumen and other petroleum products per day from Alberta. The withdrawn application could mean the company would be forced to wait up to 60 business days to proceed with construction plans, if it decides to reapply for that construction barge permit, according to the federal agency's approval process.

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The federal cabinet has been summoned to a meeting Tuesday morning — two hours earlier than usual — after which Morneau will discuss which of the three options the government has decided on.

..from the tsleil-waututh nation

Statement re Federal Government Pipeline Purchase Announcement

May 29, 2018

Regardless of who owns this proposed pipeline and tanker project, our Federal Court of Appeal case remains the same. In the near future, we believe the court will uphold our challenge that consultation was inadequate and the project review failed to address the adverse effects of marine shipping.

In the meantime, we will continue to uphold our sacred responsibility to steward our territory for the benefit of future generations. Our wish is to work with all levels of government as well as all Canadians to that end.