‘Window for making views known on Enbridge pipeline is now,’ NDP MP tells 120 at meeting

NEWS — It’s not too late to stop the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline, Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen told 120 people at St. Andrews on the Square tonight (Thursday).

In an energetic two-hour speech alternately laced with humour and concern for the future, Cullen said the proposed 1,100-km oil pipeline between Edmonton and Kitimat is a sign that democracy is failing.

The speech was part of a four-day “Take Back Our Coast” tour of the Interior.

“We’re talking about more than a pipeline,” he said. “It’s much, much bigger than this pipeline coming from Alberta. I believe we need to stop it because of what it represents.”

Cullen said the pipeline will cross 1,100 rivers and lakes where oil will be transported through narrow coastal waters by super tankers three times as long as a football field.

“I’ve grown in my opposition to it the more I learn.”

He said Enbridge itself estimates there’s a nine- to 14-percent chance of a major spill on the B.C. coast.

Canada is viewed as a secure source of oil by China and the U.S., but it is the only energy exporting nation in the world without an energy security plan, he said.

Cullen, who said he’s studied the proposal for nine years, said the Conservative government has paved the way for oil expansion with omnibus bills that remove environmental protection and “is getting a bit punchy” in attacking opponents.

Within as little as 30 days until Prime Minister Harper and the federal cabinet make a decision on Enbridge, “the window for making the prime minister and Conservative MPs from B.C. aware of what you think is right now.”

He touched briefly on the Ajax mine, saying it’s “getting a low standard environmental assessment,” referring to the joint federal-provincial review of the project.

He used the Enbridge pipeline issue to spin off into comments on a host of NDP policies, such as opposition to the Fair Elections Act, commitment to changing the first-past-the-post election system, support for higher funding for CBC and condemnation of the Tories’ handing of the temporary foreign workers program.

Cullen warned about the consequences of low voter turnout — “when you stop paying attention, bad people get in and do bad things.

“My great worry for our democracy is that it’s breaking.”

But he said the decline in support for the Conservatives in various regions of the country means “B.C. is going to pick the next federal government in Canada.”

Of the federal vote scheduled for 2015, he said, “This is a bit of a crossroads election for Canada.”