Look for the Wilderness Committee at Kinder Morgan  “public information sessions” in the BC community of Hope about the Trans Mountain pipeline route. The recent session in North Vancouver and Burnaby was severely lacking in the information department—the company is not even offering detailed community-level maps of the route through local neighbourhoods.

Instead of providing meaningful dialogue about their controversial pipeline proposal, these sessions are being used by the company as a sort of “focus group” to gauge support and opposition. It’s a way to help formulate a better strategy to sell the idea to the public when the company eventually applies to the National Energy Board (NEB) at the end of next year.

People need to understand that these sessions are not part of a government assessment process. Kinder Morgan has yet to provide details of their plan to the NEB, and when they do, there will be a federal review (and potentially a provincial one as well, depending on the outcome of next year’s election).

Location: Beban Park Social Centre, 2300 Bowen Rd, Rooms 1, 2, and 3, Nanaimo, BC

That said, we still need to keep the pressure on Kinder Morgan and use every opportunity we can to let this company know how strongly we feel that this project should not go ahead. There are several “info sessions” coming up in other BC communities, including three happening next week in Vancouver. The Wilderness Committee and our allies will be there to help share the other side to Kinder Morgan’s story, and to counter their false claims about pipeline safety, jobs and community engagement.

We’ll be hanging out outside these events, supplementing the company’s information with maps and resources of our own. I urge you to come join us, to ask the tough questions and add your voice to the growing opposition to this project. For details on info sessions happening in other communities, visit our website.

Just remember, if you do attend, don’t “sign in” or fill out one of the company’s consultation forms. These could be counted by Kinder Morgan as part of the “consultation” requirement for their formal application to the government—and we don’t want to add false legitimacy to this process.

Let’s remind Kinder Morgan that our communities and coastlines are not for sale!

Ben West | Healthy Communities Campaigner
Wilderness Committee