Pipeline opponents expect Trans Mountain to get green light Friday

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Whether the controversial Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project goes ahead rides a lot on what happens Friday morning.

That’s when the National Energy Board will let the federal government know whether the project should resume.

The National Energy Board was required to revisit the project in order to better consult Indigenous communities and to better analyze how it would impact the endangered southern resident killer whales.

Peter McCartney with the environmental group Wilderness Committee expects the NEB to give its stamp of approval.

“They’ll add another few recommendations for the government to govern marine traffic. But it won’t change anything,” he says.

Tanker traffic to transport the oil the second pipeline will carry from northern Alberta to Burnaby is projected to increase seven-fold. It’s feared the rise in marine traffic will increase noise pollution for the endangered whales, which use sound to navigate and communicate.

“It’s one of many things that is contributing to the whales’ dwindling numbers,” says McCartney. “To be making the problem worse when we are at a crisis is morally wrong.”

Misty MacDuffee with Raincoast Conservation Foundation says the federal government needs to acknowledge the realities for the whale population.

“It’s a certainty. It’s not a risk, like the chances of an oil spill. The noise is a certainty and the consequences of noise is real for the whales. This project degrades the quality of their habitat.”

This second ruling by the NEB is renewing criticism about the energy project approval process. McCartney says he’s still waiting for the Trudeau government to fulfill an election promise to remove environmental assessments from the NEB’s domain.

“It’s easy to paint us as cranky environmentalists who won’t be happy no matter what happens. But we’ve been saying from the beginning that this process has been broken the entire way through,” says McCartney.

The federal cabinet will have 90 days to analyze the report and deliver its own verdict. But it’s widely believed the government will push that deadline forward.

“Cabinet has already indicated that it will kick the can down the road and I wouldn’t be surprised if they delayed the decision until after the election,” says Sven Biggs of Stand.Earth.