MLA Column: Standing up for the Salish Sea – Oak Bay News

Sep 12th, 2017

The Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project (TMX) has been a contentious issue in British Columbia for three years. I have had many conversations with people passionately placed all along the spectrum of support to opposition.

The B.C. government announced they will be taking a different approach to Kinder Morgan’s project than their predecessor. They will intervene in the Federal Court of Appeal Judicial Review and hire Thomas Berger as external counsel guiding the government’s legal approach on the file. They also provided an update on the construction timeline, stating that construction is unlikely to proceed in September, as Kinder Morgan has suggested, as five of eight Environmental Management Plans are incomplete and have not been approved.

As an intervener in the National Energy Board (NEB) hearings for the project, I witnessed the deeply flawed process firsthand; its failures have been well documented and reported on. The Board’s report and recommendation, and the federal government’s decision to approve the project, are now the subjects of a Federal Court of Appeal Judicial Review later this fall.

Read More: http://www.oakbaynews.com/opinion/mla-column-standing-up-for-the-salish-sea/