VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – A slim majority of Canadians and British Columbians have come forward in favour of the proposed twinning of Kinder Morgan’s diluted bitumen pipeline connecting Canada’s Alberta oil patch with new markets in the Far East, via the West Coast.

A new survey conducted by the nonprofit Angus Reid Institute has found that British Columbians are deeply divided on the overall risks and benefits of the twinning of the existing 50-year-old Kinder Morgan pipeline.

According to the report, about 35% say the environmental risk outweighs the economic benefit. The same number (35%) say the opposite, and the rest (30%) say the risks and benefits are about equal. The poll pointed to the possibility of an oil spill off the coast metro Vancouver as being top of mind for residents, saying by a margin of five-to-one that it is the single-biggest concern they have about the Trans Mountain project.

The project, which involves twinning the existing 1 150 km pipeline from near Edmonton to Burnaby, would triple its capacity to carry 890 000 bbl/d of oil and could create up to 15 000 jobs. The expansion would see three times more bitumen moved daily to the British Columbia coast and a seven-fold increase in tanker traffic.

Angus Reid said its research showed that two-in-three Canadians (65%) now say the British Columbia government is wrong to try to block the pipeline, a 10% increase since February. Asked which leaders in the conflict are doing a good or bad job, just over four-in-ten Canadians say Alberta’s New Democratic Party-led Premier Rachel Notley has done a good job (43%). Fewer say this of the Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (36%) and fewer still of minority British Columbia New Democratic Party-led Premier John Horgan (30%).

The poll found that the reassertion of jurisdictional issues in the battle between British Columbia and Alberta over the completion of the Kinder Morgan pipeline project is sharpening public opinion on the matter.

“But, while more Canadians appear to be losing patience with the British Columbia government’s delay tactics, British Columbians themselves remain anxious, troubled and alarmed by the risks associated with a tanker spill in Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet. They’re also largely unconvinced that current spill response plans are up to the mark,” Angus Reid reported.

Notwithstanding, the survey found that the vast majority of British Columbians – including one-third who currently oppose the project – said a court ruling that its provincial government does not have the constitutional authority to block the project, would be enough to give in and allow the pipeline project to proceed.

Political attempts to strong-arm British Columbia – such as Alberta cutting back oil exports to the province or Ottawa withholding infrastructure dollars – appear to be less effective in getting those currently opposed to the project to say “yes”, the research has found.

LEGAL WRANGLING
British Columbia's Attorney General David Eby said on Wednesday the provincial government will be filing its reference case in the provincial Court of Appeal by April 30. The British Columbia Court of Appeal is the highest court to which the province can refer questions of this nature under its Constitutional Question Act.

The reference will first be approved by Cabinet through order-in-council, and then filed with the Court of Appeal registry. Notice of the reference must be given to the federal government.

The hearing of the reference case will be scheduled by the court.

The province wants to defer to the courts to affirm whether it has a right to protect its coast from increased oil shipments that the twinning of the pipeline would bring.