Kinder Morgan Canada president Ian Anderson outlined the benefits and downplayed safety concerns of his company's proposed oil pipeline expansion at a Chilliwack Chamber of Commerce lunch meeting Thursday.

Since 1961, there have been 78 spills on the 1,150-kilometre Trans Mountain pipeline that runs from the oil sands in Alberta through Chilliwack to the docks in Burnaby.

Five of those spills were in the Fraser Valley and none in Chilliwack, according to Anderson.

Regarding the possibility of a pipeline spill in the future?

"I can never say never and I never will," he told the audience. "But we live and breathe ensuring that this doesn't happen."

While the meeting was a Chamber of Commerce event, Anderson faced most questions from those openly opposed to the twinning project, including Michael Hale and Sheila Muxlow of the local anti-pipeline group Pro Information Pro Environment United People Network (PIPE UP).

Ben West of the Wilderness Committee told Anderson that he and his company were on "the wrong side of history."

Hale quoted back something Anderson had said on the radio about building a pipeline supported by the community.

"What if the public does not support the transport of bitumen?" Hale asked.

"I can't answer that," Anderson said, adding that he would go through the National Energy Board application process and show that it can be done responsibly.

"Social licence is something I'm told I need to get. I'm not sure how to get it."

Muxlow, who is a Chilliwack resident but who has worked for the Sierra Club in Alberta's oil sands, asked Anderson why the company wasn't open about when diluted bitumen was being moved, and why he wouldn't admit the product is more corrosive and harder to clean up.

"There is no evidence that [diluted bitumen] has had any different effect than any other commodity running through it," he said.

Anderson said there was also no scientific basis to say that diluted bitumen sinks as soon as it hits water. He pointed to the 2007 leak of 250,000 litres of oil that covered homes, trees and lawns in Burnaby, and flowed 70,000 litres into Burrard inlet.

Anderson said this crude oil was skimmed off the surface during the cleanup.

But as Hale and Muxlow pointed out after the meeting, that was not a leak of diluted bitumen.

Anderson did say that his company has adhered to all regulatory requirements in Burnaby, even exceeding them after that incident.

"We did what we were supposed to do, now we do more than we are supposed to," he said.

Through Chilliwack, the pipeline runs under farmers' fields, school yards, suburban lawns, the Vedder River and Kinkora Golf Course.

Karen Ireland lives on Watson Road next to Watson elementary. The pipeline runs through the school's property.

"This pipeline is in my back yard," Ireland said to Anderson. "My issue is that this pipeline is 59 years old. I'm concerned about slow leaks, longevity, safety."

Anderson said the pipeline "is as safe today as it was 60 years ago."

He said he is trying to be open and honest about the safety of the pipeline.

"I'm not interested in operating a pipeline that is not safe, I'm not interested in operating a pipeline that is at risk," he said.

West of the Watson elementary school yard, the Trans Mountain pipeline runs through the back yards of homes on Roseberry Road and Montcalm Road. When asked by the Times if the company would prefer to twin through that same route or divert to elsewhere, Anderson said the preference is to use the existing right-of-way wherever possible.

"Where staying in the existing right-of-way causes more community disruption we will look for alternative routes," he said. "The issue we are going to face, I know, is you build a pipeline in a straight line."

He said in places they will have to cross private property and that is why "fair treatment of land owners is so important."

The company will start to contact landowners any day now regarding the twinning project.

Anderson pointed to the local benefits of the proposed project, specifics of which are unclear this early in the process.

"Benefits and legacy after a project are very, very local," he said.

One clear benefit is economic. Anderson said the $4.1 billion project will see 60 per cent of that spent in B.C.

"The dollars that are going to be spent are real," he said.

The City of Chilliwack municipal taxes will more than double from $613,000 a year to $1.4 million.