February 26, 2015

People packed the lecture hall at the University of Winnipeg on Monday, and they packed the community hall in St. Norbert on Wednesday, to hear panelists sharing facts about the monster upon us. Manitoba, Winnipeg, and especially the small community of St. Norbert, are now at the front line of Canada's dangerous pursuit of oil. This is ground zero in the push to stabilize our climate, move our lives towards responsible energy sources and end our fossil fuel addiction.

TransCanada is proposing that their Energy East pipeline carry 1.1 million barrels of diluted bitumen – tar sands oil – for 435 kilometres across Manitoba every day. It will cross south of Winnipeg through St. Norbert, and eventually through Whiteshell Provincial Park. TransCanada’s plan is to repurpose a 40-year-old natural gas pipeline, which wasn’t designed to transport this heavy crude oil. Statistics tell us that there will be a spill: there have been 30 leaks in this pipeline system over the last 35 years.

Yet even if the odds are defied and oil doesn’t pollute our soil and water, we have a guaranteed spill of climate change-causing carbon dioxide, when the oil going through this pipe gets burned. Energy East will extend our reliance on oil, and lead us further down the dangerous path towards runaway climate change.

Cottagers from Whiteshell and Lake of the Woods, farmers from along the pipeline, mothers and grandmothers worrying for their kids and grandkids showed up this week, all to learn the facts of this folly. Attendees questioned the panelists and organizers: what do we do?

How to Act Right Now in Two Steps:

1) Right now, you need to APPLY TO MAKE A COMMENT. The federal government has jurisdiction over pipelines, and you need to apply to the National Energy Board (NEB) to do so. The window to apply to comment on the Energy East pipeline ends on March 3! [UPDATE: The NEB has extended the application period until March 17th!]

The application can be found on the NEB website here:

http://www.neb-one.gc.ca/pplctnflng/mjrpp/nrgyst/index-eng.html#s3

In 2012, the federal government, trying to quell growing public participation after overwhelming opposition during the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline review, changed the law to limit who can comment in a pipeline review. Now it’s not just enough to want to make a comment, instead you have to qualify to make a comment. You must be deemed “directly affected” in order to have your comments considered, or you must have “relevant information or expertise”. In this application, you don’t need to tell the NEB your opinion about the pipeline – you just have to convince them that you qualify to comment.

To learn more about what you need to include in your application, please click here to view the guidelines we have prepared from our experience with the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline proposal in BC.

2) The second step is simple: share this info with all of your friends, neighbors and relatives. If they don’t apply by March 3, they cannot tell the federal government what they think about this reckless pipeline proposal. It’s now or never!

For the wild,

Eric Reder | Manitoba Campaign Director

Photos (from top): Community members discuss pipeline risks in St. Norbert; A packed house at the University of Winnipeg for the Energy East Public Forum on Monday, Feb. 23; Panelist Wab Kinew speaks at the Public Forum.