#StopTMX

..yesterday

Big day up at SFU! New light signs and tons of support from students, faculty and community members. We couldn't fit it all in pictures! 

Still a lot of educating, organizing and mobilizing to do on Burnaby Mountain, but this was an awesome jumpstart to the campaign. Thanks to SFU350 for partnering with us, BROKE, Mountain Protectors and XR Vancouver for all the support, and the Overpass Light Brigade for the inspiration!

That is very impressive. The night time lit signs are very eye catching - something I have never seen done before.

We are back in the trees! Stoney Creek is being protected from #TMX damage

#solidarity with all land and water defenders

Especially Indigenous protectors standing up to TMX and CGL

#CGLofftheYintah #WetsuwetenStrong

#indigenousrights across Turtle island!

 

No more pipelines - keep the oil in the soil

Lives > profits

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/british-columbia/article-bc-storm...

The force of the Coldwater River at the peak of the storms that slammed southern British Columbia in November has changed the landscape enough that Trans Mountain will need to alter the design of its pipeline expansion project.

 

https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2021/11/24/bc-new-democrat-want...

OTTAWA—NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is not pushing to cancel the government-owned Trans Mountain expansion, even though a veteran MP in his caucus is calling for an immediate halt to construction of the controversial oil pipeline project.

Peter Julian, the NDP’s House Leader and longtime MP whose riding in British Columbia is near where the oil pipeline terminates on the Burrard Inlet, gave notice to the House of Commons this week that he intends to table a motion that calls on the government to “immediately stop” construction of the Trans Mountain expansion.

In an interview with the Star on Wednesday evening, Julian said the motion — which he has tabled in previous sessions of parliament — is a reflection of his personal views and meant to express the position of many of his constituents who don’t want to see the expansion project completed.

He stressed that he still supports the “national” position on the project expressed by Singh, who opposes the pipeline expansion in principle but is not calling for construction to stop.

“It’s the difference between being part of the caucus and tabling something as a private member,” Julian said. “A private member can express their views and express the views of their constituents, and it’s what I’ve done here.”

Pick a side.

 

No he isn't. He also said....

He stressed that he still supports the “national” position on the project expressed by Singh, who opposes the pipeline expansion in principle but is not calling for construction to stop.

He needs to double down on opposition citing the recent climate catastrophes which will only grow worse the longer we prevaricate. There is ample evidence that alternatives exist. Geothermal alone could reduce our energy use tremendously. The economic argument is weaker than ever. British Columbia's value to Canada and the world is that it is a jewel of nature. Breathtakingly beautiful with all the resources to provide for its people and make Canada richer as a country for infinity. These pipelines are short-sighted. They are not of benefit to the people of BC nor of Canada and no doubt not of benefit to indigenous peoples. 

 

 

kropotkin1951 wrote:

They are the result of our democracy and according to you what we deserve because we are unable to control our oligarchy.

It isn't a matter of being deserving or not. It's a matter of finding a way of convincing enough people that life would be better for everyone other than the oligarchs under ecosocialism.

kropotkin1951 wrote:

Pondering that has already happened where I live. Vancouver Island sent nothing but NDP and Green MP's to parliament and they are all committed environmentalists. I guess my cynicism comes from knowing that we've done all we can and Ontario and Quebec keep voting for the status quo. How many eco-socialists did you and your neighbours elect?

I've no idea but probably none. We also didn't vote PQ, until we did, or CAQ, until we did, or even NDP until the orange crush.

Revolutions don't happen by electing one MP at a time although it's a good start.

Trans Mountain tank farm fire lanes not meeting the ‘basic minimum’: city

Burnaby’s fire chief is insisting the city’s fire access lane regulations are the “basic minimum standard” and should not be dismissed by the Canada Energy Regulator.

The comment came in an affidavit filed by Fire Chief Chris Bowcock on Dec 22 in response to an application by Trans Mountain. The application sought to skirt the city’s bylaws and instead to rely on BC Building Code standards in the expansion of its Burnaby Mountain tank farm.

In particular, the federally owned pipeline company wanted to rely on less stringent rules around the width of the fire services access lane and the turning radius. Burnaby bylaws require a lane width of at least 7.3m and a turning radius of 13m, while the Building Code requires only 6m and 13m.

A history of conflict

In its submissions, first reported by Burnaby Beacon in early December, Trans Mountain cited its experience with the City of Burnaby frustrating its work by taking too long with permitting. Earlier this year, the CER ruled that Trans Mountain could circumvent a section of Burnaby’s tree bylaw.

Trans Mountain argued the city is similarly arbitrarily bogging down the process to prevent work on the pipeline expansion.

But in his affidavit, first reported by National Observer, Bowcock said the refusal to provide permits on the basis of the fire lanes is about safety.

“As fire chief, I view these requirements as the basic minimum standard for commercial and industrial development projects,” he wrote.

“For developments with a higher level of fire risk, such as a storage site for hydrocarbons, I would prefer to see more robust fire access standards (wider fire lanes and turning radii).”

Bowcock wrote that he was speaking from 15 years of experience “working in all aspects of hydrocarbon facility emergency response and emergency management across North America.”

Trans Mountain is, as part of its pipeline expansion project, looking to add a dozen new tanks, on top of the 12 that already exist.

Because Trans Mountain has its own fire response plan for the tank farm, the Crown corporation argued it didn’t need to rely on Burnaby fire crews.

But Eugene Kung, a staff lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law, noted in an interview earlier this month that it’s “not like a fire is going to respect the property line of Trans Mountain when it’s raging out of control.”.....

CER hearing over Trans Mountain fire lanes set for this month

A dispute between Trans Mountain and the City of Burnaby over fire access lanes at the Burnaby Mountain terminal is expected to go to a Canada Energy Regulator hearing late this month.

The CER set a potential hearing date of Jan 28 for Trans Mountain’s application to bypass sections of the city’s building and fire services bylaws, naming both TM and Burnaby as participants.

The CER gave governments until Dec 14 to respond. Neither BC nor the federal government will be participating in the process, while Alberta’s attorney general has reserved the right to participate.

According to a Dec 8 letter from the CER, letters of comment by interested parties had to be filed by Dec 23, with Trans Mountain submitting its reply to the City of Burnaby by Jan 5.

All participants will file their final arguments by Wednesday, Jan 12, with the hearing set for Jan 28.

Trans Mountain also sent out notices to provincial and federal attorneys general to give them a chance to participate in the hearing....

It's Big Oil, not environmentalists, who are foreign-funded 

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) may rue the day they made foreign funding a public issue. Three years ago, CAPP head Tim McMillan launched a crusade against “foreign-funded, anti-pipeline” activists. “We have been the victims of a very well-orchestrated, well-planned foreign-funded attack,” he charged.

CAPP is the apex oil and gas lobby group in Canada, wielding enormous influence in Alberta and the rest of Canada. McMillan’s call was heard loud and clear by Jason Kenney, then-leader of the UCP which went on to win the April 2019 election, partly on the promise to create a war room and public inquiry against “anti-Alberta energy campaigns.”

Did it not dawn on CAPP that crusading against a pittance of foreign funding of environmentalists trying to block the transportation and carbon pollution of oilsands oil would blow back and reveal just how foreign funded CAPP and Big Oil in Canada are?

quote:

Although the majority of oil corporations operating in Canada list their headquarters in Calgary, my research shows that their Canadian-ness is an inch deep. Of the 48 corporations on CAPP’s 2020 board of governors, 30 were confirmed to be fully or majority foreign-owned. There was insufficient data to definitively confirm the ownership of seven more corporations on CAPP board members, but the available data shows that they too are very likely foreign-owned. Combined, that makes 37 of 48 CAPP’s corporate board members — 77 per cent — that are fully or majority foreign-funded.

They produce about 97 per cent of the oil by corporations on CAPP’s board. In contrast, majority Canadian-owned corporations produced less than three per cent of it and are small players engaged in the declining conventional oil sector.

Furthermore, most of CAPP’s revenue comes from foreign-funded corporate members. Although CAPP refuses to make its revenue public, their site shows that their fees are based on each member’s oil production. The greater the production, the higher the fees. Since 97 per cent of the oil produced by CAPP’s corporate board members came from fully or majority foreign-owned corporations, those fees must account for about 97 per cent of CAPP’s revenue.

That doesn’t stop CAPP from gaily waving the Maple Leaf flag and claiming to speak for Canada’s national interest. Yet CAPP is but a copycat of its American big brother oil lobby group — the American Petroleum Institute (API). CAPP represents many of the same oil corporations as the API and shamelessly copies its brand of American petro-nationalism.....

Here is a map showing earthquake zones in BC. The TMX pipeline under the Fraser River is in the highest risk zone. That zone has the highest risk of an oil leak in 5 - 10 yrs.

I am 100% behind stopping trans mountain. I understand that different indigenous groups have full rights over their respective territories regardless of what other groups choose to do. Having said that....

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/indigenous-non-profit-trans-mount...

A new Indigenous non-profit organization is seeking an ownership stake in the Trans Mountain Pipeline, saying its aim is to make sure communities along the pipeline's route receive its benefits directly.

Nesika Services publicly launched Monday, calling itself a grassroots, community-led not-for-profit.

Chief Tony Alexis of the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation in Alberta (and the chair and founding director of Nesika) said 14 Indigenous communities along the pipeline's route in Alberta and B.C. have already signed on.

Police have been acting illegally against protesters and that will take time to wind its way through the courts. Physical protest is needed to stop work and to lay claim to the land. That alone won't be enough. It confuses people to hear that TM could be 100% indigenous owned. It seems like that would settle it. Simple straightforward explanations need to be developed to explain why it isn't that simple.

Why oil and gas heating bans for new homes are a growing trend

At least two jurisdictions have implemented recent restrictions on fossil fuel heating:

• Vancouver: Starting Jan. 1, 2022, equipment for space and hot water heating in new low-rise residential buildings must be zero emissions. By 2025, all new and replacement heating and hot water systems must be zero emissions.

• Quebec: Starting Dec. 31, 2021, oil-powered heating has been banned in new construction projects. After Dec. 31, 2023, it will be illegal to replace existing furnaces with any sort of heating system powered by fossil fuels.

TRANS MOUNTAIN DRILLING FLUID SPILL RESULTS IN MORE DELAYS AND NEW RISKS TO THE FRASER RIVER

Despite gaps in Indigenous consultation and questions around inadequate engineering surveys, Trans Mountain has applied for a route change on the Fraser River crossing of their oil pipeline. Trans Mountain recently had a significant setback on their horizontal directional drilling (HDD). Problems with soil stability and equipment resulted in a spill into a fish bearing creek and sink holes on the Mary Hill Bypass in Coquitlam. Trans Mountain is proposing a route change in response. Media reports, several federal members of parliament and a coalition of environmental organisation have highlighted that Trans Mountain did not follow its own experts’ advice which recommended extensive test drilling, and identified concerns with horizontal directional drilling taking place in the soft riverine sediments in and around the Fraser River. 

This area, the convergence of the Coquitlam River with the Fraser River, has been occupied and visited uninterruptedly by Coast Salish peoples including TWN since time immemorial and still holds immeasurable value to many Nations. TWN is particularly concerned with potential impacts to our Aboriginal rights, title and interests, including impacts to archaeology and fisheries along the new route. TWN has not had an opportunity to review potential risks or impacts from the proposed route because we were not consulted on the route change despite the work clearly falling within our consultation area. This is contrary to CER project conditions and Trans Mountains legal obligations to consult. 

We are gravely concerned with the risk to the Fraser River if the drilling should fail again or if the new route introduces vulnerabilities in the integrity of the pipeline when operating. The Fraser River has globally significant value to waterfowl and wildlife. This immediate location is known to have year-round resident use by sturgeons, eulachon spawning has been documented here, and the area is visited by returning adult and out-migrating juvenile salmon. The HDD staging site is located within  Metro Vancouver’s Colony Farm Park, a haven for waterfowl and migrating birds. These fish and wildlife species are profoundly important to TWN and impacts to these valued species would infringe Tsleil-Waututh’s Aboriginal title, rights, and interests in Tsleil-Waututh Territory.....

..so depressing to read this shit. paying through the nose in order to damage our environment. 

Why the TMX Will Endlessly Spill Taxpayers’ Money

quote:

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland talked about borrowing more money from public debt markets or the very bank, TD Securities, that originally, in 2018, recommended that Kinder Morgan sell to the Canadian government its 66-year-old pipeline along with engineering plans for an expansion.

Freeland promises that “no more additional public money” will go into the project.

But Allan told The Tyee this week that such a claim is absolute nonsense, because “all borrowing by Crown corporations is ultimately backed by taxpayers.”

Interest charges on existing government loans of $13 billion for the TMX project are already costing $700 million in interest every year, added Allan.

“The government-owned project has been badly mismanaged. The budget is out of control. The shippers, due to their contracts, are not responsible for the cost of the majority of the overruns, and taxpayers are being seriously misled,” Allan said.

quote:

Tolls that keep on leaking money

But the big problem with galloping cost overruns boils down to tolls, says Allan: pipelines typically pay for their capital costs by charging shippers a toll to transport oil through their pipe.

But the contracts with oil products shippers such as Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., Suncor and Cenovus stipulate that a large share of the cost overruns can’t be passed on in tolls. They were signed when the pipeline was budgeted at $7.4 billion. Therefore, fully 75 per cent of the cost overruns at that time could not be passed on.

“No one in Ottawa or the tarsands will discuss the toll rates,” said Allan.

She says that taxpayers, not bitumen shippers, are not only liable for the majority of cost overruns now totalling $14 billion but will be subsidizing some of the richest oil companies in Canada with artificially low tolls that won’t reflect the cost of the project.

This sorry development may also explain why companies like Cenovus, CNRL and Suncor aren’t really complaining or panicking about rampant cost overruns.

“Why should they worry?” asked Allan. “Their tolls have been subsidized for any project costs exceeding $7.4 billion.”

“When Trans Mountain and the shippers know it’s not the shippers but the taxpayers who are paying for the majority of the project overruns, where’s the need for budget control?”

..petition

It’s time to cancel the Trans Mountain pipeline

Our federal government has made climate pledges, promises of reconciliation with Indigenous communities, assurances about caring about the health and safety of our oceans, and committed to a Just Transition for workers. Canceling this white elephant means putting that money directly into these efforts, changing this country for the better and moving us towards a greener, more just future.

Tell banks: don’t gamble on Trans Mountain

The Trudeau government has cut off taxpayer funding to Trans Mountain. Now, this toxic pipeline project needs private investors to fund further construction – otherwise, it’s dead in the water.

Canada’s biggest banks – RBC, TD, Scotiabank, BMO and CIBC – will be high on Trans Mountain’s hit list for private funding. We need to send an urgent message to the banks: investing in this pipeline will tank their reputation and their bottom line.

Tell the banks if they help finance this pipeline that fuels climate disasters and violates Indigenous rights, they’ll be fighting their customers every step of the way.

Even industry insiders and Liberal MPs now admit TMX is a terrible investment: at $16 billion over budget, it’s a money pit for whoever ends up owning the pipeline.

The banks need to know that Trans Mountain is radioactive. Tell them to stay away, or lose their customers.

Send your message now, and help stop Trans Mountain in its tracks!

Open Letter: Investment in the TMX Poses Significant Financial Risks for First Nations

quote:

The federal government’s announcement that no further public money will be invested in TMX is also misleading, as pointed out by Morgan. The federal government will likely have to provide a guarantee to private sector lenders, including priority creditor status for any private party to even consider funding TMX.

Even then, the cost of capital will be higher than the government rate. This means that the financing costs will increase further, and will be borne by the Canadian public because any debt incurred by the Crown corporation is public debt.

UBCIC supports Indigenous self-determination and economic self-sufficiency. However, this cannot come at any cost nor in a way that undermines other Nations’ title and sovereignty.

We are concerned that the government is using TMX as another divide and conquer project and is not providing a full and accurate account of the financial future of the project. Your due diligence must include an assessment of the commercial viability of TMX under its unique toll structure, and also include an analysis of future liability related to maintenance and spills. Otherwise TMX could be modern-day economic version of a small-pox blanket.

Before you make the decision to participate or not, here are some crucial and significant points that you should know.....