Kinder Morgan, Burnaby slug it out at NEB hearing

CALGARY — Kinder Morgan Canada and Burnaby clashed in a National Energy Board’s hearing room Monday over permits for the controversial Trans Mountain expansion project.

The company argued at the NEB’s Calgary headquarters that local political opposition to the $7.4-billion pipeline project has tainted permitting in the B.C. city and that the process has been delayed, requiring the NEB to step in and override municipal bylaws to maintain the federal government’s wish that the project go ahead.

“When unreasonable delay, which based on the evidence, could continue into perpetuity, [it] must be seen as an outright refusal and unconstitutional,” Trans Mountain lawyer Maureen Killoran said.

The company has been frustrated by the lack of firm timelines, guidance and structure in the local process as it tries to secure permits for such actions as tree removal and fence installation ahead of construction of oil storage and loading facilities in Burnaby, she said.

Killoran said strong and vocal opposition by Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan to the project has created an atmosphere of opposition, even if the mayor has not specifically interfered in the process.

“He doesn’t have to. He’s in the newspaper, regularly, this is their leader. He’s in the newspaper, on the radio, he’s everywhere. He’s on the radio saying: ‘Who’s going to stand with me and stop the bulldozers?’ ”

“It has poisoned the well within the city of Burnaby. We are not going to get an efficient process there,” Killoran said.

Burnaby’s lawyer, however, said there has been no unreasonable or illegitimate delay and no intention from city officials to do so, and that it is the company that is to blame for the slow pace of permitting.

“It is our position that the time for permit processing here has been primarily driven by the incompetence, or the ineptness perhaps, or at least the inexperience, of the consultants for Trans Mountain in complying with basic municipal approval processes,” Gregory McDade said.

“Trans Mountain has failed to put in a minimally viable application that almost any experienced developer in the city of Burnaby or other major cities would have known to put in.”

McDade said it’s up to Trans Mountain to prove there has been an unreasonable delay or intention to delay, and that it hasn’t done so.

In legal filings, Burnaby also said that Trans Mountain didn’t apply for its Burnaby permits until June, with no explanation as to why Kinder Morgan waited so long after receiving federal approval in November, 2016.

Michael Davies, Kinder Morgan Canada’s vice-president of operations, said in an affidavit that it could cost the company between $30 million to $35 million in salaries, corporate support and other expenses for each month of delay in the project.

Davies said the company stands to lose about $90 million in revenue for every month the start-up is delayed.