Enbridge Answers Not Satisfactory-Says Province
Prince George, B.C.- The hearings into the Northern Gateway twin pipeline project will resume this morning at the Columbus Community Centre, but the Provincial Government says it has serious concerns following the first day and a half of cross examination.
"The responses from Enbridge/Northern Gateway to cross-examination by our legal counsel are too often incomplete and lacking in commitment," Environment Minister Terry Lake said. "Their answers suggest that the company is not taking the very real concerns of British Columbians seriously."
The Province’s cross-examination made it clear that the analysis of geological challenges is incomplete, and the mapping of geological hazards (such as landslide areas) that has been done lacks detail. As well, the company’s geotechnical assessments use a different
methodology from guidelines established specifically for British Columbia.
The Province also says Enbridge would not commit to adopting enhanced leak detection systems While acknowledging that they are aware of systems that could detect very small leaks, the company would only say that they will continue to study them. The company would also not commit to using automatic shut-down in the case of a leak being detected, but would instead rely on manual shut-down decisions.
"One thing that is crystal clear after the last two days is that Enbridge/Northern Gateway is putting off making commitments about including these systems in the pipeline design until after they get approval to proceed," Lake said. "We believe that the only way to protect
British Columbia’s interests is to ensure that these commitments are made up front, so that everyone will understand how they intend to run this project."
The hearings today will continue with cross examination by C.J.Peter Associates Engineering, followied by the Driftpile Cree Nation, and if time permits, the Coalition of the Forest Ethics Advocacy, Living Oceans Society and the Raincoast Conservation Foundation.
Comments
There is an old saying that sums this up. “Time will either promote you or expose you.”
You are being exposed once again Enbridge!
What we want:
More hospitals
Better schools
Twinned highways
More money for teachers and nurses
Want we don’t want:
Pipelines
Mining
Hydroelectric development
LNG facilities
You are catching on, rocky!
“Want we don’t want:
Pipelines
Mining
Hydroelectric development
LNG facilities”
SO how do we pay teachers and nurses more?
How do we build better schools and more hospitals?
What good is a twin highway with no energy to burn to use it?
These things employ people who pay taxes and buy stuff in stores that employ clerks who pay taxes etc. I’m not for the “at all costs” mentality of resource extraction but this province will be a pretty lonely place if we stopped all the things we don’t think we like.
Canada needs to develop an energy policy that addresses the issues of domestic security of supply of its energy resources.
Foreign ownership as well as domestic pricing are two other fundamental issues that Canada needs to address.
Harper should put his flag away that says our country and any/all our resources rights are for sale before he goes to any more foreign countries.
Our province needs to develop an energy policy that includes its environmental and its economic position for not only our provincial resources but also for the energy products which cross the province.
Canadians deserve to know what our future holds in terms of what is being sold and to whom and what benefits actually land within this province and this country.
Hugo Chavez just won his fourth election in Venezuela because he puts the benefits from oil ahead of foreign interests and profit taking.
‘So how do we pay teachers and nurses more?’
I was kidding.
Of course we need pipelines, mining, hydroelectric facilities, LNG plants, etc., etc., etc. That’s true wealth creation for the benefit of all British Columbians.
The bleating masses don’t seem to understand that. They think hospitals, schools, highways, juicy public-sector collective agreements etc. just magically appear on their own.
What we need:
Fewer sick people – not more hospitals
Empowered youth – not better schools
Local economic autonomy – not twinned highways
Want we don’t want:
Pandering from trickle-downers. Pipelines don’t build schools. They build offshore bankaccounts. They certainly don’t empower youth and they certainly don’t make people healthier.
Want more schools? Start by prioritizing them over Olympic Games, fighter jets, and the Port Mann Bridge
‘Empowered youth’
Like the empowered youth in Quebec that aren’t satisfied with the lowest tuition fees in North America and instead demand free tuition?
Or the empowered youth of the Lower Mainland that won’t come north of Abbotsford to get a job because they don’t like winter?
Or the empowered youth everywhere that spend more time on Facebook than studying for school?
Canadians, and British Columbians in particular, continue to slip further and further into a free-lunch mentality. ‘We don’t need economic activity – the government will take care of us!’
So you’d like to continue that cycle by selling out to Enbridge so the government can continue to do exactly what it is doing?
Yes, there are huge problems with entitlement in Canadian society (I would add the youth are not alone in this), but it’s not going to get better by throwing more money in the pot. Learning how to do more with less is a lesson we all need to learn.
Stephen Harper sold our Canadian rights and values to China, in my opinion Stephen Harper should be tried for treason..
Read the shocking story below, be scared, very very scared of what Harper has done
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/10/11/Chairman-Harper/
curmudgeon: “Pipelines don’t build schools.”
But millions in taxes and royalties from pipelines sure do.
rocky: “Canadians, and British Columbians in particular, continue to slip further and further into a free-lunch mentality. ‘We don’t need economic activity – the government will take care of us!'”
Sadly true.
“But millions in taxes and ryalties from pipelines sure do.
Don’t cut Stephen short, he is negotiating everday new trade agreements, give him time those millions from taxes and royalties will be thousands and hundreds soon!
Sadly true.
Wow.
“But millions in taxes and royalties from pipelines sure do.”
It’s not enough JohnnyB. No dollar amount is enough. We can’t afford a Kalamazoo type spill in BC period.
Two years later they are still cleaning it up.
http://chicagoist.com/2012/07/26/two_years_after_massive_oil_spill_t.php
Hugo chavez you got to be kidding. Why don’t you move down there then and try to open a blog like this. Good luck.
The teachers need more money and need less class size. Society needs are many. Fuel prices need moderation—If i need to fill up my 2012 Kia Rondo I have to wait for my next pention check. All of the financing can happen if Harper just wouldn’t sell us out.
If we wanted to call the oil industry bluff we would use their numbers to propose an export tax from BC shores for Canadian oil.
They say the oil can get a 20% premium if sold off shore at market rates and that those market rates would apply to every other barrel of oil produced in BC.
Therefore why not a 20% export tax on every barrel of oil sold off shore to ensure the Canadian price is protected (it still wouldn’t be enough to cover a future spill liability because Gateway bituman will be last barrel needed oil, and thus not likely competitive at world market prices). BC and Canada can not afford more oil price inflation, so this would be a BC taxation policy that protects the economic viability of the Canadian economy through an energy policy that protects all Canadians from energy cost inflation.
We can be sure that as we reach peak oil that 20% will grow exponentially, so Canada would otherwise bankrupt our economy through energy inflation costs of world markets unless we have an export tax in place.
If the export tax was in place and equalized the oil arbitrage game that is being played, I would bet the oil industry would back off quick. After all this whole project can be summed up in windfall profits from oil arbitrage by the oil industry causing a cycle of energy cost inflation.
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