Kinder Morgan pulls pipeline ads
VANCOUVER — Kinder Morgan is pulling advertising for its proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion during the federal election campaign, after a B.C. New Democrat seeking reelection complained about a flurry of ads in local newspapers.
“I have a very tough fight against my opponent in my riding,” said Kennedy Stewart, who is running in a Vancouver-area riding. “The last thing I need is multinational companies also advertising during the election. Let’s just have a fair playing field.”
A spokeswoman for the Trans Mountain expansion, Lizette Parsons Bell, said Saturday that the information provided in the ads “doesn’t advocate for any particular party, policy or position.”
She said the ads have been running since September and were designed to “engage with and provide information to as many British Columbians as possible” about the company’s history and safety.
“However, with the call of the election last weekend, we are rescheduling and the current series of advertising will end this weekend, due to the sensitivities around all forms of advertising.”
Kinder Morgan hopes to triple the bitumen-carrying capacity of the Trans Mountain line by laying almost 1,000 kilometres of new pipe between Edmonton and Burnaby.
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper has pushed for oilsands development and pipeline growth, while NDP Leader Tom Mulcair has been more cautious on the topic.
During Thursday’s televised leaders’ debate — during which Stewart said Trans Mountain aired a commercial — Green Party Leader Elizabeth May pressed Mulcair to answer whether he opposed the expansion. He said only that he supports a stronger environmental review process.
Stewart said he does not support Trans Mountain under the current National Energy Board review, which has been criticized for excluding oral arguments and not considering climate change.
And he alleged Kinder Morgan should have registered with Elections Canada as a third-party advertiser subject to spending limits.
“The law says that if they’ve spent over $500 they have to register as a thirdparty spender, and indeed they have (spent more than $500),” he said. “It sounds like they weren’t aware, but ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law.”
The Canada Elections Act states third-party advertising includes any message that “takes a position on an issue with which a registered party or candidate is associated.”
Stewart wrote Canada’s elections commissioner, Yves Cote, about the issue last week and was told by Cote’s staff that the deputy commissioner was looking into it.
The elections commissioner did not immediately respond to a request for comment.