Enbridge decries U.S. charities

Complaints trying to erode Gateway critics’ credibility says U.S. eco-donor

VANCOUVER – Organizations founded by an American oil baron and a Silicon Valley philanthropist are among the foreign charities being targeted by Enbridge in its battle against critics of the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline.

Tens of millions of dollars have been donated to conservation groups and initiatives in B.C., for everything from Earth Day celebrations to aboriginal salmon-recovery programs.

Enbridge has asked the environmental review panel examining the Northern Gateway project to compel funding information from its critics. The panel returns to B.C. this week for final hearings on the controversial project.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver earlier this year decried the “foreign special-interest groups” that “threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda.”

Enbridge has singled out several groups in requests submitted to the panel. They include: ❚ The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, a California-based organization founded by the Intel co-founder focusing on conservation, scientific research and patient health. ❚ California’s William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, a social and environmental charity founded by Hewlett-Packard’s co-founder. ❚ The Rockefeller Foundation, a philanthropic venture of John D. Rockefeller Sr., who founded the Standard Oil Company. ❚ Tides Canada, a Vancouver-based organization that distributes donations to initiatives on climate change, wilderness protection, marine conservation, aboriginal issues, poverty and international development.

Ivan Thompson, program officer for the Moore Foundation’s Wild Salmon Ecosystem Initiative, suggested the funding is far from nefarious. The foundation is interested in Canada “because, essentially, salmon and marine systems are collapsing around the world and here in Canada there’s a chance to do it differently,” said Vancouver-based Thompson.

Enbridge is trying to undermine the credibility of its critics, he said.