Prince George, B.C. – It was on track to be one of the shortest Council meetings  on record,   until the issue of a letter of support for the Trans Canada  pipeline project was brought forth.

In the first 14 minutes of the  Council meeting,   Council  dealt with  a presentation, two public hearings,  two  applications and several  bylaw amendments.

Then  the pace slowed,  as Trans Canada  requested a  letter of support for the Coastal Gas link Pipeline and the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Project,  both of which are  on the  verge of  final  investment decisions.

The issue of whether  to write the letter  took  12 minutes  to  resolve.

Councilor Jillian  Merrick  didn’t see there was any merit in writing a letter at all.   She   stressed Trans Canada pipeline has done a great job informing Council, but,  “I don’t feel the City has  a direct responsibility in providing this letter of support.  The reality  is this project happens completely outside of our jurisdiction and we have several economic benefits that may come from the pipeline, but we don’t have much skin in the game on this and as much as we  have a responsibility to investment in the region we also have a responsibility  to our neighbours  who are dealing more tangibly with the benefits and  losses  that this project might bring.”

Other members of Council took  a more  balanced  approach, calling on the Mayor to write a letter that would support  the project, but , as  Councilor  Brian Skakun noted, “not a blanket letter of  support” as there are still issues that must be addressed, including  First Nations  and environmental concerns.

Other Councilors echoed  their  support for Trans Canada,  but a desire to have the letter outline the fact there are  still some issues that need to be resolved.

“I feel  we are caught between a rock and a hard place” said Councilor Murry Krause, “because of what  they can bring to the community, but also  some of the issues that are inherent with supporting it.”

Councilor Frank Everitt said that on the one hand, the pipeline project could  see Trans Canada expand its workforce,  and some of those workers just  might  make their home in Prince George,  but he too  wanted a conditional letter that recognizes the environmental concerns  along the  pipeline route.

“Trans Canada   is a good corporate citizen in Prince George” said Mayor Lyn Hall, but he  knows  a letter of support will be used   to  convince investors to   put money into the project .  “There is no question  that within the letter , we write it and stay away from a template,  that we do identify things  that they  presented to us  recently in their presentation to Council around environmental issues, First Nations issues and  social issues that have been brought up.”  Mayor Hall says Prince George may  be the only municipality along the pipeline corridor  that doesn’t submit a  template version of  the letter of support, “I think that’s a good thing.  There’s nothing wrong  with us identifying some things that we want to make  aware and may be a concern of ours, that they are taken care of.”

Council  approved  writing the  letter of conditional  support  with Councillor Jillian Merrick the lone  dissenter .

In all, the  Council meeting  from start to finish was just  26 minutes long.