Did Christy Clark just betray British Columbia?

Premier Christy Clark has just announced that her government has issued an environmental certificate for the Kinder Morgan pipeline. This betrayal means that Kinder Morgan now has the key provincial permit they need to proceed with their project.

Premier Clark justified today’s decision by saying that her government’s five conditions for tar sands pipelines have been meet. So let’s take a look at whether that’s true…

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PARTLY MET – CONDITION 1: “Successful completion of the environmental review process.” At various times, both Prime Minister Trudeau and Christy Clark’s own government have called the environmental review process biased. But both Trudeau and Clark approved the pipeline anyways. Does that sound like a successful completion to you?

NOT MET – CONDITION 2: “World-leading marine oil-spill response, prevention and recovery systems for B.C.’s coastline and ocean to manage and mitigate the risks and costs of heavy-oil pipelines and shipments.” The tar sands crude carried by Kinder Morgan’s tankers sinks when it’s spilled in water, making it basically impossible to clean up a spill. If your oil spill response can’t clean up spilled oil, it’s definitely not ‘world-leading’.

PARTLY MET – CONDITION 3: “World-leading practices for land oil-spill prevention, response and recovery systems to manage and mitigate the risks and costs of heavy-oil pipelines.” Christy Clark’s government has passed new legislation that enables better regulations around land oil spill response. Unfortunately, they have yet to develop those regulations or put any of them into place. Oh yeah… if any of these land spills runs into a body of water, there’s no way to clean it up. So not ‘world-leading’ either.

NOT MET – CONDITION 4: “Legal requirements regarding Aboriginal and treaty rights are addressed, and First Nations are provided with the opportunities, information and resources necessary to participate in and benefit from a heavy-oil project.” With 59 BC First Nations standing in opposition to Kinder Morgan’s pipeline, it’s pretty clear that more work needs to be done before the legal requirement of consultation and accommodation can be said to be met.

NOT MET – CONDITION 5: “British Columbia receives a fair share of the fiscal and economic benefits of a proposed heavy-oil project that reflects the level, degree and nature of the risk borne by the government, the environment and taxpayers.” BC takes the vast majority of the risk of the Kinder Morgan pipeline and yet sees almost no benefit from the project. For British Columbians, this project is all risk and no reward. 

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So did Christy Clark just betray BC? It sure looks like it. It’s now up to us to stop this dangerous pipeline.

We stopped the Northern Gateway pipeline after it received its permits, and we can stop this pipeline as well. Join us so we can stop this pipeline now before construction ever begins.