It was a full house at St. Timothy Anglican Church on Wednesday evening, as residents packed the building for Burnaby's first public forum on the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion.

The panel featured representatives from Chevron, Kinder Morgan and the TsleilWaututh First Nation, with Mayor Derek Corrigan and local MP Kennedy Stewart.

The meeting was not part of Kinder Morgan's official public consultation process; the church organized it because congregation members have property close to the existing pipeline.

Kinder Morgan's Mike Davies gave a brief outline of the project, which includes twinning the existing Trans Mountain pipeline to increase daily capacity from 300,000 barrels of oil to 750,000, much of which will be shipped via tanker. The line, which runs oil from Alberta to Burnaby, was built in 1953. According to Davies, the company will spend a year on project refinement and consultation before applying to the National Energy Board for approval. Construction could start in 2016 and last one and a half years, he said. The project would also require expanding the existing tank farm on Burnaby Mountain and adding a second dock to the Westridge Marine Terminal to allow space for three tanker berths.

Ray Lord, from Chevron's Burnaby refinery, told the audience that his company was a customer of Kinder Morgan's, and fellow Chevron employee Paul Grey outlined the pipeline's important role in supplying the refinery with crude.

"You can imagine, it's a pretty critical part of the refinery," Grey said. "We would (like) to continue receiving crude."

Stewart talked of the Conservative government's recent changes to environmental approval process, mainly the new time constraints (NEB reviews will last two years maximum) and the limits on who can participate. Stewart also spoke of a phone survey he conducted on the pipe-line, where the majority of respondents in his riding were opposed to the expansion.

Corrigan said he was a supporter of business in Burnaby and wanted all the facts on the pipeline, but he also recounted a meeting he had with representatives from the National Energy Board, and how he was surprised and appalled that there was no national energy plan in Canada.

"There's no idea as to what is the appropriate way to utilize the billions of dollars of assets that come out of our Alberta tar sands. There's no idea as to what the long-term strategy should be for energy self-sufficiency in Canada or even energy self-sufficiency in North America. In fact, the whole thing is left to the open market, - it's left up to the multinational corporations to decide Canada's energy future and how our resources will be utilized."

Corrigan prompted the audience to ask him what the impact on Burnaby would be.

"I think when you find out what that impact is, that each of you will go home a little more frightened," he said.

Carlene Thomas of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation talked about how important the Burrard Inlet was to her people.

"When the tide went out, the table was set," she said, quoting her elders. "Currently, there are a lot of foods - a lot of marine life in the Burrard Inlet - that are not harvestable due to pollution in the water."

While the Tsleil-Waututh has already come out against the pipeline expansion, Thomas said the nation is in favour of sustainable development.

"Our ancestors have taught us from the beginning of time that we can use the resources within our territories, but we must use them wisely, and we must be mindful of the generations to come."

The panelists' presentations were followed by questions from the audience. Ben West of the Wilderness Committee, an outspoken activist opposed to the expansion, asked Davies why Kinder Morgan had not yet released a map of the proposed route for the twin line. Davies replied that the route was still being decided, but that they would try to stick to the existing right-of-way where possible.

"I don't know where the route's going to be," he said.

Another audience member asked who would clean up if there were a spill. Davies explained that Kinder Morgan works alongside local first responders. The company does not have a fund for oil spill cleanups, but they do have insurance, Davies explained.