B.C. MUST PLAY BY THE RULES

What is going on in British Columbia?

It appears that respecting the rules — whether it’s obeying a court order, following established trade practices, fulfilling governmental obligations or even observing the constitutionally enshrined distribution of powers between governments — doesn’t amount to much these days on the West Coast.

To start, more than 150 people have been arrested protesting the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, most for violating a courtordered injunction. They include B.C. MPs Elizabeth May and Kennedy Stewart.

In February, B.C. announced a proposal to restrict increased shipments of diluted bitumen while it studied the environmental effect of a potential spill — a move rightly derided by Alberta Premier Rachel Notley as unconstitutional. Only after a retaliatory wine embargo did Premier John Horgan’s government back off, saying it would let the courts decide.

But B.C. showed last week how much it respects the justice system after the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed its application to appeal a National Energy Board ruling that allows Kinder Morgan to bypass City of Burnaby bylaws during construction.

Environment Minister George Heyman scoffed at the decision, saying this “allows the local permitting process to be needlessly undermined,” and that the province will keep looking into ways to fight the $7.4-billion project — which has already been approved by both the NEB and the federal government.

This, from the same regime that simultaneously offers tax incentives for liquefied natural gas projects in B.C., including LNG Canada’s $40-billion project that would include building a natural gas pipeline from northeast B.C. to a new terminal in Kitimat on the coast.

The City of Burnaby, where RCMP have been arresting activists, refuses to pay those extra policing costs. The city still hasn’t paid an $800,000 bill for policing similar demonstrations in 2014. And while Burnaby already gets a 10 per cent federal contribution to its policing costs, Mayor Derek Corrigan wants Ottawa to pick up the tab since the federal government approved the pipeline.

Under the province’s Police Act, municipalities bigger than 15,000 people must pay the cost of policing within their boundaries.

While protesters, the City of Burnaby and the B.C. government are free to oppose the pipeline, they aren’t free to break the law in doing so.