Civic reps split on pipeline expansion

NEWS/ POLITICS — The City of Burnaby narrowly failed to get other B.C. cities onside in opposing the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion Thursday.

Burnaby proposed an emergency resolution at the annual Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Whistler in the wake of plans by Kinder Morgan for a proposed tunnel through Burnaby Mountain.

The resolution was defeated in a close vote of 49.3 per cent in favour and 50.7 per cent opposed.

Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan said the $5.4-billion project, which would increase the capacity of the Trans Mountain pipeline from Alberta down the North Thompson Valley through Kamloops and to the Coast, is too risky.

The Burnaby News Leader reported that delegates from communities along the North Thompson River said if the expansion is denied, oil shipment by train will increase.

“That can be used to move oil and there are not restrictions at all,” Clearwater Mayor John Harwood was quoted as saying.

Merritt City council sided with the pipeline. Mayor Susan Roline said the Trans Mountain twinning will bring $39 million to Merritt. “It impacts us more than it does Burnaby in what it can give back to us,” Roline earlier told the Merritt Herald.

The convention wraps up Friday.