B.C. Parks wants you to send public input on boundary changes to Kinder Morgan
Georgia Straight
If Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain expansion gets built, land must be removed from Finn Creek, North Thompson River, and Bridal Veil provincial parks, and Lac du Bois Grasslands Protected Area for the pipeline corridor.
A public comment period on the proposed park boundary changes closes October 12. But B.C. Parks doesn't want to hear directly from you.
On its website, B.C. Parks opts to "encourage" people to submit their comments to Kinder Morgan. "Trans Mountain will provide a summary of these comments to BC Parks," the site states.
However, if you insist on sending your input directly to B.C. Parks, it'll grudgingly accept your feedback. You just have to agree to a "privacy statement", acknowledging that your comments will be shared with Kinder Morgan. Only then is the hidden feedback form revealed.
The pipeline won't just affect the aforementioned four parks and protected areas. B.C. Parks states that "Trans Mountain also intends to apply for a resource use permit (RUP) to construct the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion through Coquihalla Summit Recreation Area".
Kinder Morgan says on its Trans Mountain site: "Following completion of Project construction, the lands removed from the parks through the boundary adjustment may be returned to park or protected area status with operations authorized under a park use permit."
Sierra Club B.C., the Wilderness Committee, and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society's B.C. chapter are fighting the proposed parkland removals.
“Along with repealing the Park Amendment Act, the Province’s protected area boundary adjustment policy needs to be fixed to ensure that our parks are protected from industrial development,” Gwen Barlee of the Wilderness Committee said this week in a news release. “We are calling on British Columbians to defend our parks system—and these four parks in particular—by saying ‘no’ to changing these park boundaries to suit Kinder Morgan’s pipeline aspirations.”
You can read Kinder Morgan's park boundary adjustment application on its Trans Mountain site.
Photo: Bridel Veil Falls at Bridal Veil Falls Provincial Park, one of the parks being targeted for boundary adjustments. Antony Stanley via Flickr.
