Pipeline terminal better served from Delta port: Alberta premier

CALGARY — Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said Kinder Morgan may need to move the proposed terminal for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to win support for the project.

Speaking at a Bloomberg Live conference in New York, Notley said it could be better if the terminal were shifted south rather than following the current pipeline’s route through Burnaby in B.C.’s Lower Mainland.

Notley said a port near the Tsawwassen ferry terminal in Delta could be a possibility, a suggestion Vicki Huntington, the independent MLA for Delta South, rejected. “It is unfortunate Premier Notley has made such an ill-considered statement. Delta’s foreshore is a completely inappropriate location for the Kinder Morgan terminus, and would put the most valuable ecological habitat in Canada at risk,” said Huntington.

Kinder Morgan maintains the Trans Mountain project is an expansion of its existing pipeline and that its current Westridge terminal in Burnaby is the best option from both a financial and environmental perspective.

“Trans Mountain is con- fident that expanding our existing facilities is the best option, and the one we chose to pursue,” the company wrote in a filing with the National Energy Board last year. “We feel Westridge terminal is the safest location that will also result in the least environmental impact.”

Trans Mountain Expansion project spokeswoman Ali Hounsell said the company is not considering other terminal options and its application is only for an expansion of its current facility. The expansion would increase capacity on the pipeline to 890,000 barrels per day.