B.C. MIGHT HAVE TO QUELL ANTI-PIPELINE PROTESTS
Situation may eventually echo anti-logging demonstrations back in Harcourt era
Premier Rachel Notley says B.C.’s NDP government may eventually have to enforce the law to break up anti-pipeline demonstrations.
“People have every ability to engage in free speech,” she said in an interview Wednesday. “They don’t have the right to break the law.
“And NDP governments — in B.C., in fact — have been compelled to enforce the law in the past, and we suspect the same thing will happen again.”
Notley was referring to the Clayoquot Sound logging demonstrations, which saw 800 people arrested and many charged after huge protests in 1993, during the tenure of NDP premier Mike Harcourt.
The current NDP’s approval of the Site C hydro dam could force the same choice on Premier John Horgan, even before demonstrators inevitably challenge the Kinder Morgan pipeline.
Notley was taking a subtle dig at Horgan; if you foment antipipeline hostility, you might get more than you hoped for.
But she isn’t unhappy with B.C.’s new plan, released Wednesday, for developing rigorous anti-spill protection on land and sea.
The 41-page document envisages B.C. spill response plans for just about every inch of pipeline, rail line and highway, to the point that truckers should be careful about spitting out the window.
It’s isn’t specifically designed for Kinder Morgan — in fact, the project isn’t even mentioned. But everyone knows what project would get the most intense scrutiny.
After reviewing the document, Notley said, “what stands out in this is what’s not in there — Point Five.” That’s her term for B.C.’s earlier claim that it could limit what goes into the pipelines. Notley boycotted B.C. wine in response, and then lifted the ban when Horgan backed down last week.
“That was ridiculous, a clear attack not just on federal jurisdiction, which is critical, but also on the energy industry,” she says.
“We fought back and now we see a document that doesn’t include it, and that is good,” she said. “It’s obvious they’re very focused on protecting the environment. That’s the approach they are taking going forward. In principle, we agree with them on that, and we would never suggest that we didn’t. We will keep a very very close eye on this, to make sure they continue to operate within their jurisdiction.
“Where we see any evidence that is not happening, the heat will turn right up again.”
“At the same time, we share the overall goal to protect the environment going forward — everybody wants that.”
The new document seems to place incredibly detailed demands on companies — not just Kinder Morgan, but every shipper of liquid petroleum products and much else, on land and sea. Notley isn’t bothered.
“Kinder Morgan’s probably already done all that,” she says. “A lot of this stuff is already in the National Energy Board report — let’s be clear, there’s thousands of pages that came out of and went into the NEB process. As excruciatingly detailed as this 41-page document reads, it’s nothing compared to what you see in front of the NEB, and the level of detail that the company has already very rigorously subjected itself to.
“But, again, the devil is in the details, and that’s what we’re going to keep an eye on.”
George Heyman, B.C.’s environment minister, suggested Wednesday that if the province wins its Federal Court appeal of the NEB approval, the province could then design a better process.
Notley says: “To be clear, they still wouldn’t be the ones designing the process. It would be the federal government designing the process. So it’s not up to him one way or another to decide.”
After the bitumen ban crisis, there’s a very low level of trust between these governments. Notley saw no threats in Wednesday’s B.C. actions, but she’s clearly still suspicious.
“Our attention to this will not be finished until the project is finished,” she concludes.